“El trabajo es la Dictadura”

From 22 to 25 January, Ivorypress will host the performance El trabajo es la Dictadura (Work is Dictatorship), by Spanish conceptual artist Santiago Sierra, on the occasion of the publication of El trabajo es la Dictadura, the latest title of Ivorypress’s LiberArs series.

To carry out this publication, thirty workers will be hired for the minimum wage established by the Spanish National Public Employment Service, in order to fill out the one thousand copies of the edition by hand, repeatedly writing the phrase ‘El trabajo es la Dictadura’.

In parallel to the performance, the public will be able to visit the exhibition Los Encargados, produced by the artist in collaboration with Jorge Galindo, at Helga de Alvear, Santiago Sierra’s gallery. The exhibition, which opens on 17 February, will be on show until 2 March 2013.
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This proposal is in line with others carried out by Sierra in the past, such as 20 workers in a ship’s hold, 2001; 11 people remunerated for learning a sentence, 2001, or Hiring and ordering of 30 workers according to the colour of their skin, 2002.

The performance will be open to the public from 22 to 25 January at Ivorypress Space from 10:00 to 2:00 p.m. and from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m.

The resulting artist’s book, El trabajo es la Dictadura, will be commercialised and sold for €24 each. The final price equals the whole production cost of the book, with no benefit. This way, the new volume of Ivorypress’s LiberArs series aligns with the spirit that pervades the performance and the whole artistic production of Santiago Sierra.