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20 WORKERS IN A SHIPS HOLD, 2001

Maremagnum Mall and pleasure-boat moorings in the port of Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain. July 2001

A 20 meter cargo boat was hired for one week. It was to pick up 20 people at a certain point in the port, who would remain hidden in the hold, and then head towards another point close-by, taking three hours there and back. The people were mainly contacted through the Ibn Batuta immigrant aid association. Although their Maghrebi and sub-Saharan origin was of primary impor- tance, alluding to the usual method of arrival of some foreign workers, two Bolivian workers and a female Argentinian worker were also taken on. They were paid 4,000 pesetas, some $20, for three hours and required to have their papers in order to avoid foreseeable problems with the police in a public place, where the event was staged in full view.

The piece was produced with the support of the local government, which had to control the number of workers, their legality and provide insurance. Likewise, they were responsible for supplying drinking water and ice because of the heat. Owing to the high temperatures, we had to work in the evenings. On the first day, we did not attract the numbers expected but, from the second day, the problem was that there were too many workers. Males of Moroccan origin monopolized the event completely displacing the other immigrants immediately, whilst the organization only just succeeded in withholding the names of the participants. The atmosphere in the hold was surprisingly spirited, with card games and singing.

On the fifth day, I had to leave the organization in charge, whilst I attended to other commitments. As a result, the piece was canceled suddenly – the heat and even a mutiny on board were blamed. In reality, what happened was due to an inability to control the growing crowd of participants and the real fear instilled in the local government agents entrusted with the task by this labor group which, in Spain, is traditionally associated with criminality. It is worth pointing out the considerable media impact of the event and the constant disruptions to its normal development owing to the presence of the press. The event took place within a framework in which the city’s immigrant workers were staging constant sit-ins against Spanish immigration laws.

Santiago Sierra, 20 Workers in a Shops Hold, Maremagnum Mall and pleasure-boat moorings in the port of Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain. July 2001, protocol work
Santiago Sierra, 20 Workers in a Shops Hold, Maremagnum Mall and pleasure-boat moorings in the port of Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain. July 2001, protocol work
Santiago Sierra, 20 Workers in a Shops Hold, Maremagnum Mall and pleasure-boat moorings in the port of Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain. July 2001, protocol work
Santiago Sierra, 20 Workers in a Shops Hold, Maremagnum Mall and pleasure-boat moorings in the port of Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain. July 2001, protocol work
Santiago Sierra, 20 Workers in a Shops Hold, Maremagnum Mall and pleasure-boat moorings in the port of Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain. July 2001, protocol work
Santiago Sierra, 20 Workers in a Shops Hold, Maremagnum Mall and pleasure-boat moorings in the port of Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain. July 2001, protocol work

protocol work

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Santiago Sierra

THE MAELSTRÖM. Serrekunda, The Gambia. May 2023, 2023 (photo)
THE MAELSTRÖM. Serrekunda, The Gambia. May 2023, 2023 (video)
2 EXERCISES SEQUENCES FOR A POPULAR GYMNASTICS. Madrid, Spain. May 2023, 2023
46 PLAYERS OF THE TAILLINDING UNITED FOOTBALL TEAM, 2023. Serrekunda, The Gambia. May 2023
National Coat of Arms of Spain Stamped with Blood, 2022
National Flag Of Spain Submerged In Blood, 2021
Pigs Devouring The Italic Peninsula, 2012
Destroyed Word, 2012
World’s Largest Graffiti, 2012
Franz Erhard Walther and Santiago Sierra Demonstrating No. 46 From Walthers First Workset, 2011
NO Projected Above The Pope, 2011
War Veterans Facing The Corner, 2011 - Ongoing
Person Obstructing a Line of Containers, 2009
Attempt to Build Four 100x100 cm Sand Cubes, 2009
Teeth of the Last Gipsies of Ponticelli, 2008
THE PENETRATED (box), 2008
Burned Buildings (Found Scene), 2008
89 Huichols, 2006
Doorplate, 2006
245 m³, 2006
House in Mud, 2005
Hooded Woman Seated Facing The Wall, 2003
Hiring and Arrangement of 30 Workers in Relation to Their Skin Color, 2002
Person Saying a Phrase, 2002
3 Cubes of 100 cm on Each Side Moved 700 cm, 2002
PERSON PAID TO REMAIN TIED DOWN TO A WOODEN BLOCK, 2001
20 WORKERS IN A SHIPS HOLD, 2001
Object measuring 600 x 57 x 52 cm Constructed to be Held Horizontally to a Wall, 2001
10 Inch Line Shaved on The Heads of Two Junkies Who Received a Shot of Heroin as Payment, 2000
Obstruction of a road with different objects, 2000
The Wall of a Gallery Pulled Out, Inclined 60 Degrees From the Ground and Sustained by 5 People, 2000
8 PEOPLE PAID TO REMAIN INSIDE CARDBOARD BOXES, 1999
Obstruction of a Freeway With a Truck‘s Trailer, 1998
Gallery Burned With Gasoline, 1997
Footbridge Obstructed with Wrapping Tape, 1996
50 liters of gasoline in an abandoned field, 1994
50 kg of Plaster in the Street, 1994
2 Cylinders Each Measuring 250 × 250 cm, Composed of Posters That Have Been Torn Down, 1994
20 Pieces of Road Measuring 100 × 100 cm Pulled Up From the Ground, 1992
Geometric Postcards, 1990
Walks, 1990
Mountains, 1990
Prism, 1990

Santiago Sierra's oeuvre stands out from the art history of the past 30 years like a massive black monolith. The Spaniard, who was born in 1966 and also lived in Latin America, knows like no other how to use the established forms and rules of contemporary art to give the violence and injustice of Western modernity a face - a face that is our own. The formal language of minimalism, in its distanced, cool way, is particularly suited to being short-circuited with the abstract economic and institutional apparatuses that bind people into the dehumanized conditions of production, migration, (self-)exploitation, and stigmatization. Those conditions, in other words, that guarantee the privileges of most of the viewers to whom Sierra's work addresses itself in the art world. Not everyone likes that. Sierra is the living shadow in the repressed bad conscience of power and money, with which people rule over people. His work has been honored institutionally many times, and in 2003 he represented Spain at the Venice Biennale.



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