An artwork by Santiago Sierra was removed from Helga de Alvear’s booth at ARCO Madrid a few hours before the VIP opening on Wednesday 21 February, The New York Times reports. This prompted the city’s Mayor Manuela Carmena to boycott the fair’s opening, in sign of her protest and commitment to the ‘utmost defence of freedom of creation, expression and exhibition in Madrid’. The removal was ordered by Ifema, the state exhibition centre hosting the art fair, on the ground that it would undermine the ‘visibility’ of the other works in the fair. The work, titled Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain (2018), consists of a series of black-and-white blurred portraits of politician and activists supporting Catalan independence, who were arrested last year and are facing charges of sedition or rebellion. The images are subtitled with a text describing each of the figure’s role and organisation, along with the charges they are facing.
In a statement, the artist pointed to the ‘censorship’ of a work which ‘precisely denounced the climate of persecution that cultural workers are suffering in recent times’. His gallerist explained the decision as a diplomatic move, saying that ‘IFEMA and the government must not want conflict, and it’s less complicated to remove it’.
22 February 2018
