House in Mud, 2005

Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany

On the ground floor of the Kestnergesellschaft, 320 m3 of material consisting of 55 m3 of mud and 265 m3 of peat were brought onto the floor and walls. At the beginning of the project it was planned to use sediment of the Maasche because of its sociological implications. This proved to be impossible due to the fact that the health risks which could have occurred from its use in the exhibition spaces of the Kestnergesellschaft could not be assessed. There existed the danger, because of micro bacteriological activity, of an uncontrolled release of organic decomposition products, which can in part be highly dangerous to health. As a substitute, peat and moor-mud from Bad Nenndorf and from a moor cultivation area near the Steinhuder Meer was used. This material is bacteriologically harmless, consisting as it does of sediment whose nutrient-poor composition and high degree of acidity prevent processes of decay and the accompanying spread of harmful micro-organisms. On the first floor only the muddy footprints of the visitors were found.

Santiago Sierra, House in Mud, 2005, tryptich, lambda print on forex, 100 x 150 cm each

tryptich, lambda print on forex, 100 x 150 cm each

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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**

**Franz Erhard Walther and Santiago Sierra Demonstrating No. 46 From Walthers First Workset, 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**

**Burned Buildings (Found Scene), 2008**

**Hooded Woman Seated Facing The Wall, 2003**

**Hiring and Arrangement of 30 Workers in Relation to Their Skin Color, 2002**

**3 Cubes of 100 cm on Each Side Moved 700 cm, 2002**

**PERSON PAID TO REMAIN TIED DOWN TO A WOODEN BLOCK, 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**

**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**

Biography

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.

Full Biography

Exhibitions at KOW