Text by Emma Cummins
Notorious for his controversial and ethically dubious video-works, Santiago Sierra is a contentious and well-known figure in the field of contemporary art. Both politically and aesthetically provocative, his work combines elements of social and institutional critique to confront the problems of labour and the politics of contemporary culture. Best known for works such as 160 CM LINE TATTOOED ON 4 PEOPLE (2000), or 68 PEOPLE PAID TO BLOCK A MUSEUM ENTRACE (2000); Sierra exploits the terrible inequalities of society to proffer perspicacious insights into the history of art and the realities of neoliberal capitalism.
A magnet for writers and critical theorists, Sierra could be construed as a facilitator 鈥 an artist whose wilful exploitation of people results in live, participatory events that are documented and displayed as 鈥渁rt鈥. As highlighted in Dedicated to the Workers and Unemployed, a mid-career retrospective at London鈥檚 , the camera is key to this process; a silent, yet indispensable witness to his uniquely prescribed artistic contexts.
At the , visitors are greeted with a room of 14 wall-mounted monitors and headsets. Revealing a selection of the artist鈥檚 well-known video works, the room is a cleverly curated montage of Sierra鈥檚 participatory works from the late 1990s to 2011. From 100 HIDDEN INDIVIDUALS (2003) to THE WALL OF A GALLERY PULLED OUT, INCLINED 60 DEGREES FROM THE GROUND AND SUSTAINED BY 5 PEOPLE (2000); we see grainy, black and white shots of people engaging in durational performances that toy with notions of power, surveillance and social complicity.
Realised in a variety of different locations 鈥 in galleries, streets, office blocks or abandoned buildings – works such as 8 PEOPLE PAID TO REMAIN INSIDE CARDBOARD BOXES (1999) are loaded with paradox. Both social and sculptural; culturally rich yet morally ambiguous, their oxymoronic allure is compelling and disturbing in equal measure. In this particular work, we discover (through the video鈥檚 disconcertingly self explanatory title) that a collection of cardboard boxes are components in a unique, participatory performance. Paradigmatic of Sierra鈥檚 documentary video-work, the piece nods towards Minimalist sculpture and the history of Conceptual Art, yet seethes with the uncomfortable presence of people who quietly comply with the artist鈥檚 instruction.
Whilst Sierra, in the wake Claire Bishop鈥檚 essay (2004), has long been associated with the field of relational aesthetics; contemplation of this particular work reveals that Sierra鈥檚 ostensibly 鈥渞elational鈥 works could be read as ruminations on the unnerving, invisibility of power. Subsequently, his inhabited cardboard boxes 鈥 breathless, yet quivering with life 鈥 could be interpreted as a visualisation of power relations, their disquieting ambiguity and concrete social effects.
If, as the great theorist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre once said, space is a 鈥渟ocial product鈥, not an empty container of social relations; Sierra鈥檚 work seems to proffer an image of the intangibility of capitalism and its ideological hold on the body. Unlike relational aesthetics however, where the artistic medium is the body 鈥 or the interaction between bodies through human relations – Sierra鈥檚 work contains a sculptural aspect that is often critically overlooked. It is significant then, that whilst the majority of works at the Lisson are materialised as videos, the last room of Dedicated to the Workers and Unemployed contains a new and revelatory sculptural work.
Loudly proclaiming the word 鈥淣O鈥 in huge black lettering, it is a welcome aberration in a show that privileges documentation over empirical experience. Caught between 鈥 where the word 鈥淣O鈥 is projected above the Pope and across the chest of an unsuspecting policeman 鈥 the NO sculpture represents a new direction for Sierra, a full-blown embrace of materiality and potent, aesthetic presence.
Infused with an air of stubborn resistance, this loud and uncompromising sculpture is a facet of a large-scale video-work titled (2009-2011). Two hours in length, the film documents an unusual journey – a journey where two NO sculptures are transported on the back of flatbed trucks across Europe and the United States. In Berlin, Toronto, Rotterdam, Washington and many other places (most notably the industrial areas of cities) the sculptures 鈥 weighing half a ton each, and measuring about 5.10 by 13.12 feet 鈥 traverse everyday environments to create a kinetic sensation of hope and resistance.
Through the simple invocation of the word 鈥淣O鈥, a heavy irony forms a conclusion to this hard-hitting and expansive retrospective. If we consider the acts of complicity that make Sierra鈥檚 video work possible 鈥 the silent 鈥測es鈥 from his accepting participants 鈥 it seems apt to suggest that Sierra鈥檚 鈥淣O鈥 is a crude, yet productive indication of a significant, stylistic shift. If, as the artist routinely insists, his work merely represents the conditions of life that we are 鈥渦ncomfortable confronting鈥; NO, Global Tour transmits a nebulous sense of possibility rarely seen in his earlier works.
Santiago Sierra: Dedicated to the Workers and Unemployed, 01/02/2012 – 03/03/2012, Lisson Gallery, 29 Bell Street, London.
Santiago Sierra: Films and Works, 20/01/2012 – 10/04/2012, Reykjav铆k Art Museum, Iceland.
Aesthetica in Print
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