Santiago Sierra
dal 14/1/2009 al 27/2/2009
Segnalato da
14/1/2009
Santiago Sierra
Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid
Los penetrados. L'ultimo lavoro di Sierra, presentato nella galleria, si relaziona direttamente con la linea sviluppata in lavori come "111 costruzioni realizzate con 10 moduli e 10 lavoratori" (Zurigo, 2004) o ancora: "Organizzazione di 12 parapetti pre-fabricati" (Israel, 2004). In queste opere una serie di forme geometriche sono combinate insieme dall'artista. Nel lavoro "I penetrati" Sierra compie un'operazione analoga combinando 110 elementi di due colori e generi diversi; in quest'ultimo caso pero' al posto di corpi geometrici solidi, l'artista ha utilizzato corpi umani, usando il sesso come simbolo della paura verso i fenomeni di immigrazione.
This new work by Santiago Sierra is directly related with other previous works, for instance “111 Constructions with 10 Modules and 10 Workers” (Zurich, 2004) or “Arrangement of 12 Prefabricated Fortifications” (Herzliya Museum, Israel 2004) in which a series of geometrical forms were combined by the artist in different arrangements.
From an aesthetic and conceptual viewpoint they also dovetail with minimalism. The geometrical bodies echo back to a direct formal citation that (above all else) remains intact as a conceptual intention inherited from this movement in which objects are not only or exclusively what they are.
“Los penetrados” [The Penetrated] is grounded in very similar way: the combination in couples of 110 elements with two colours and two genders. In this case, however, instead of solid geometrical bodies, they are human bodies. In other words: black men, white men, black women and white women combined in pairs on the basis of whether they penetrate or are penetrated. The persons’ faces have been digitally erased to accentuate the purely modular character of the actors.
The action is divided into eight Acts, featuring the various possible combinations between the active and passive bodies of blacks and whites: white man-white woman, white man-white man, white man-black woman, white man-black man, black man-black woman, black man-black man, black man-white woman, black man-white man.
The theoretical starting point are groups of 10 couples on which the arrangement of the current reality of Spain is to be applied. The theoretical structural geometry of the action is echoed in a weave formed by the 10 blankets on which the successive couples are to be placed. The reality of the proposal is expressed when some of the blankets are left empty in those Acts in which the circumstances did not provide the necessary elements/actors to undertake it. For instance, in Act 3 there are only three couples, given that due to police pressure the majority of women did not turn up. On another note, social and cultural conditionings hampered the appearance of passive black men.
The grey blankets therefore build a perfect weave on which to later apply the conditionings of reality. The empty blankets visually represent the composition of Spanish society. Similarly to previous occasions, the exact and perfect numbers of Sierra’s proposal settles accounts with reality.
A mirror set at an angle behind the actors multiplies the couples and the viewpoints. The mirror as place of representation but also as recourse to make extensive to the spectator what is happening on the screen: in the mirror one can see oneself reflected while at once, by duplicating the actors, it seems to embrace society as a whole.
The final element of the action is the penetration. While penetration is usually identified with possession (they are even synonyms in the dictionary and literary language), anal penetration always has a negative connotation. Even at the height of the sexual revolution, defending anal sex was always fraught with difficulties and in almost all languages there is some expression that equates anal penetration with scorn for the person penetrated. The title of this work “Los penetrados” [The Penetrated] thus throws the focus onto the passiveness and submission of the penetrated.
There is another series of works by Sierra that also uncovers the functioning of capitalist and market society by paying the participants of the actions. Some of them combine elements like payment and the variation of geometrical bodies (“Raising of Six Benches”, Munich, 2001) or payment and sex (“Ten People Paid to Masturbate”, Havana, 2000”). Yet “Los penetrados” [The Penetrated] is not one of them.
Though the actors were paid to take part in the work, the work does not restrict itself to the relationship between sex and economic exchange, but it also uses sex as a metaphor for the social relationships between individuals of both sexes and both colours.
This work was made on October 12th, the National Day of Spain once known as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race).
Opening: Thursday 15th January 2009 at 8:00 pm
Galería Helga de Alvear
Calle Doctor Fourquet, 12 Madrid
Hours: 11:00 am - 2:00 pm & 4:30 - 8:30 pm