Limited-edition book including documentation of both Pole’s by the artist. The 2015 expedition travelled from the remote island Svalbard to the kinetic Russian ice base Barneo, using a network of private tourism and logistical support companies to complete the journey. Both expeditions to the poles were documented through photography and sound recording and both flags were left in situ. Black Flag reflects on the issues of territorial control, imperialism and state control.

The Black Flag publication features reproductions of all artwork produced in the project, an interview with Santiago Sierra and several critical essays on Sierra’s work, the Black Flag, Anarchism and Polar Exploration. 

Ed. Philip Howe, foreword by Philip Howe, text(s) by UriGordon, Becky Haghpanah-Shirwan, Claire Warrior, Mike Watson, Santiago Sierra.

Santiago Sierra, born in Madrid, 1966, graduated in Fine Arts at Madrid’s Complutense University and completed his artistic training in Hamburg, where he studied under professors F. E. Walter, S. Brown and B. J. Blume. His beginnings as an artist are found in the alternative art circuits in Madrid although he would go on to develop much of his career in Mexico and Italy. His work has persistently exerted a significant influence on artistic literature and criticism through his reveal of perverse networks of power that cause the alienation and exploitation of workers; the injustice of labour relations; the unequal distribution of wealth produced by the capitalist system; the iniquitous paradox of work and money; and pandemic racial discrimination in a world scored with unidirectional migratory flows.

Softcover: 104 pages
Publisher: a/political
Language: English
Dimensions: 220 x 280mm