Week 3 - Santiago Sierra artworks and commentaries

250cm line tattooed on six paid people 1999

160cm line tattooed on four people 2000              

Find out more: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sierra-160-cm-line-tattooed-on-4-people-el-gallo-arte-contemporaneo-salamanca-spain-t11852/text-summary

Polyurethane sprayed on the backs of ten workers 2004

Find out more: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/performance-santiago-sierra

‘Exploitation is everywhere, especially in a city built on imperial foundations like London. It’s in the water and the coffee we drink’ – Santiago Sierra

'We as artists have to find the way we confront the state and capitalism' – Santiago Sierra

'Sierra is treading a thin line between detached conceptual criticism and complicity with the very economic exploitation and human objectification he is critiquing' - Amanda Church

'Art ceases to be art when the artist starts to cause pain to others and when the human rights of the participants are disregarded and dismissed’
‘How can anyone look up to an artist whose work is based around human exploitation and wouldn’t exist without it’ – brogananneramm Art blogger

‘It makes us think about labour and value, about what culture can do or say, and the exclusivity of the international art world, and about the emptiness of our social contracts’
 ‘The artist’s work aims to shock and risks accusations of coercion and manipulation’ – Adrian Searle The Guardian July 2004

‘…the artistic statement comments so powerfully on the beautiful and stark  contrasts in the cultural mindset of different peoples, which can allow (or force) young men such as these to permanent branding for minimal payment, and for the viewing pleasure and intellectual stimulation of educated peoples elsewhere’ – A blog curated by Haider Ackermann