INVERSE PORTRAITS: POWER AND REPRESENTATION IN THE WORK OF SANTIAGO SIERRA.
Picture: Sue Ponce. © Santiago Sierra. VEGAP, Madrid, 2024.
Alexis Callado, the curator of the Santiago Sierra exhibition 1502 Persons Facing the Wall, invites us to accompany him on a tour focused on works that question representation and power, in which the curator will share the origin of the project and its different phases.
The artist’s first solo show in Madrid, it revolves around one of his hallmark resources: portraits of people with their backs facing us, where the subject’s identity is nullified, stripping them of their individuality. Through this approach, Sierra invites spectators to reflect on issues like immigration, exploitation, exclusion and war.
On the tour of the show, participants will reflect on the dynamics of control in art and contemporary society and explore how Sierra connects his work with minimalism, conceptual art and performance from the 1960s and 1970s, using these languages to reveal the power structures permeating the contemporary world.
The tour will also address the contrast between the Western vision of representation, focused on identity and visibility, and the Eastern perspective, which values absence and neutrality as spaces for new interpretations. Through this guided tour, visitors will be able to analyse how Sierra’s black-and-white images and videos reveal raw realities that challenge the public and generate profound awareness of the power dynamics that operate in art and in the world.
Dates:
Saturday 19 October 12 noon
Saturday 14 December at 12 noon
Register in advance by phoning 91 276 02 21 or emailing ca2m@madrid.org
AFORO: 20 PERSONAS.