Santiago Sierra

An heir to the minimal, conceptual and performance art practices of the 1960s and 1970s, Santiago Sierra makes works that are provocative and critical of the capitalist economic system and its resulting social problems. In his works, he addresses issues of labour, social hierarchies, and national and class affiliations. For the work in this exhibition, Europe, Sierra simultaneously plays the national anthems of the 27 member states of the European Community in 2009, thus generating a cacophony and concealing the individual songs in a confusing cascade of notes. Played on a loop, the work becomes a background that penetrates the entire exhibition, whereby Sierra seems to point more to dissonances in the union than to the harmony that the community of European countries should pursue.

Santiago Sierra (1966, Madrid, Spain), lives and works in Madrid. After graduating in Fine Arts in Madrid, he completed his training in Hamburg. His beginnings are linked to the alternative art circuits of the Spanish capital, although he also spent long periods in Mexico and Italy. Sierra’s work, heir to the conceptual and minimalist practices of the 1960s and 1970s, seeks to reveal the perverse power networks that inspire the alienation and exploitation of workers, injustice in labour relations and racial discrimination in a world marked by unidirectional (south-north) migration. He has had solo exhibitions at PAC Milan (2017); Prometeo Gallery, Milan (2016); Helga de Alvear Gallery, Madrid (2016); Kunsthalle Tübingen (2013); Reykjavik Art Museum (2012); Museo de Arte Contemporánea (MARCO), Vigo (2009); Museo Madre, Naples (2009); and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (CAC) Málaga (2006). He represented Spain at the 55th Venice Biennale d’Arte (2013).