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Santiago Sierra — Person Paid to have 30 cm line tattooed on them
Santiago Sierra

Person Paid to have 30 cm line tattooed on them

A stark black and white photograph documents a controversial performance work in which Sierra paid a marginalized individual to have a 30 cm line permanently tattooed on their body. The image confronts the viewer with questions of economic exploitation, bodily autonomy, and the commodification of human flesh, blurring the boundaries between art, labor, and coercion. Sierra's unflinching documentation transforms an act of transaction into a pointed critique of capitalism and social inequality.

Medium
black and white photograph on Fujicolor Crystal archive paper

🔨 Auction Lot

Under the Influence

April 8, 2014

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About this work

Santiago Sierra, Person Paid to have 30 cm line tattooed on them

A stark black and white photograph documents a controversial performance work in which Sierra paid a marginalized individual to have a 30 cm line permanently tattooed on their body. The image confronts the viewer with questions of economic exploitation, bodily autonomy, and the commodification of human flesh, blurring the boundaries between art, labor, and coercion. Sierra's unflinching documentation transforms an act of transaction into a pointed critique of capitalism and social inequality.

Medium
black and white photograph on Fujicolor Crystal archive paper
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Monochrome, Conceptualism, Conceptual, Photograph, Body Art, Performance, Provocative, Spanish, Black and White, Contemporary

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