Photo courtesy of ARCOmadrid
Santiago Sierra’s work is known for addressing Spain’s political unrest. Last year his work was so controversial that it had to be pulled from ARCOmadrid, but this year, he may have presented something even more inflammatory at the Madrid art fair, and possibly illegal: an effigy of King Felipe VI of Spain for a buyer to burn.
The work centres on the Catalonian independence movement that turned heated when the national government attempted to stop a local referendum with police force in late 2017. Since then, the leaders of the separatist effort have been either imprisoned or exiled from the country. Sierra’s piece, which ARCO chose to remove from its 2018 edition of the fair was a 24-part collection of pixelated photo portraits of jailed leaders, titled Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain. IFEMA, the organisation that runs ARCO, told the media in a statement that it removed the work to avoid controversy, but the move only drew more attention to the matter as the Mayor of Madrid publicly boycotted the fair.
This year’s entry, NINOT – a collaboration with artist Eugenio Merino – risks a lot more that art-world censure. Insulting the Spanish monarchy is a crime that can carry a prison sentence of two years. The 14-foot sculpture is on sale for €200,000 at the booth of Milan gallery Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, but it is not a collector’s item. Part of the sales contract is that the piece must be burnt within a year. “The specificity of this sculpture is that it isn’t conceived to endure in time, to be collected, but for the pleasure of being destroyed,” Luis Navarro, who works with Sierra, told the AFP.
The king, as head of state, is a symbol of a unified Spain – one that has come under heavy criticism as tensions rage in the Catalonian conflict. Last week, protesters burned photos of Felipe VI, as the king was opening a mobile industry trade show. Although the Spanish congress has made moves to decriminalise insulting the king, actors and rappers in Spain, like Voltonyc and Willy Toledo have been punished under the law in recent years.
SLEEK reached out to ARCOmadrid for comment on the legality of the piece, whether or not they have intentions to remove NINOT and how the situation is different this year without response. Still, a major change this year is that the Madrid festival is led by a Catalonian, Maribel López, for the first time in almost four decades.
According to the Art Newspaper, King Felipe VI has visited the fair, avoiding the Sierra-Merino sculpture and no criminal insult has been taken yet. We will be waiting to see who buys it as the fair comes to a close on Sunday.