Santiago Sierra: Veterans Psychophonies
November 12 – December 20, 2013
Santiago Sierra (b. 1966, Madrid) is known for exploring the relationships between labour, capital, empire and oppression through poetic and frequently controversial actions. His representations of the exploitative transactions of everyday life often involve contracting people to perform useless, degrading or repetitive tasks. The work issues a critique of the brutality of capitalism, using capitalism's own logic and methods. It touches on a range of related themes including immigration, exclusion, separation, invisibility, war, exploitation, dignity, resistance and the art market. Offering little by way of apology or solution to the predicament of those involved, Sierra's work presents ethical dilemmas for both spectator and art institution and often implicates the audience in the events they witness.
In two new site-specific works commissioned by Void—Veterans and Psychophonies—Sierra addresses the legacies of the conflict in Northern Ireland through an engagement with demilitarised sites and former soldiers, employing flying drones, video, sound recordings and postering.
Veterans is a development of an ongoing project, in which Sierra employs military veterans to stand facing the corner within gallery spaces. In this instance, five British Army veterans were contracted to stage the action in Ebrington, a former army barracks located on the banks of the River Foyle. A flying drone camera captured the performance of the veterans, most of whom served in Ebrington, within the deteriorating decommissioned buildings. A poster campaign presents still images from Veterans in public spaces throughout the city. The sound installation Psychophonies deals with the legacies of conflict. The work consists of three high fidelity recordings of locations in and around the city where torture is alleged to have been used during the conflict.
Sierra is currently exhibiting at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, KOW, Berlin in addition to an extensive retrospective at Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg. Recent solo exhibitions of Sierra’s work include the No–Global Tour; Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo Artium, Vitoria; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; Museu Madre, Naples, Italy; Lisson Gallery, London; Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid; Spanish Pavillion, 50th Venice Biennale.
Exhibition curated by Sara Greavu & Jonathan Cummins.
Curators' Statement
While 2013 may indeed represent a critical moment of transition in the city towards a new cultural and economic future, it is also a moment in which it is more important than ever that 'culture' asks some difficult questions. We are happy to have been able to commission this new body of site-specific work by Santiago Sierra, an artist known for his strong social engagement and comment.
Sierra's provocative use of demilitarised sites and former soldiers adopts a position regarding this city’s contested and militarised past, redrawing the boundaries of confrontation and struggle, and rethinking the narrative of the city. In its mirroring of emerging technologies and theatres of war, it also offers a broader reflection on contemporary war cultures and operational tactics.
The work marks our past and questions who is allowed to play a role in defining the parameters of dialogue about our future. It reminds us of the changing use of our urban spaces and asks that history is not obscured by celebrations and regeneration but that we continue to ask questions about what is changing and who benefits? Who is at the centre and who is at the edge?