PRESS RELEASE FROM SANTIAGO SIERRA STUDIO

ON THE CANCELLATION OF OUR PARTICIPATION IN THE DARK MOFO FESTIVAL

The recent publication in an Australian media [https://www.theaustralian.com.au] of a
report on the “Union Flag” project that we were going to carry out in the framework of the
Dark Mofo Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, has provoked a wave of reactions that has resulted
in the public lynching of the piece and its subsequent cancellation. We think that, to a
large extent, it has been the superficial and spectacular treatment of the matter by some
in the media that has stirred up the mood and built up the indignation to suit their own
needs. It was precisely the aforementioned media that gave us an extensive interview,
urgently requested, for the production of this report, of which only a few decontextualised
quotations appear in the report. In this way, we were left without a voice, without the
capacity to explain and defend our piece. We believe it is important to know the project
with which we began to work and which was accepted by the organisation before forming
a judgement and issuing an opinion, which is why we present its fundamental lines here:
UNION FLAG
Proposal for the Dark MOFO Festival
Santiago Sierra

“This project consists of immersing the flag of Great Britain in as many units of blood as
territories colonized by the British Empire, extracted from representatives of each of the
countries that were their colonies at some point in their history. One unit of blood (450 ml)
shall be drawn from one person in each of these countries. This blood shall be mixed in a
rectangular aluminium bucket in which the flag shall be immersed.”
One of the aspects on which most criticism has focused is its emphasis on the Australian
Aboriginal population, one of those who have suffered most violently from British
colonisation. On this point we have to say that, while this factor was important in the
context we were working with, it was by no means the central element of the work, given
that, as we expressed in the project, British domination has historically extended across
the five continents, affecting Western countries as well:

Map of countries that have been under the British Empire

“In an ideal scenario 83 units would be collected, equivalent to just over 37 litres of blood,
excluding those places that are uninhabited or inhabited only by British military
population, which would be distributed as follows:
AMERICAS (20 units): Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina (Falkland Islands - South Georgia
and the South Sandwich Islands), Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, Belize, British Guiana,
Canada (Newfoundland - Ascension Islands), Dominica, Grenada, Honduras (British
Honduras), Jamaica, Nicaragua (Mosquito Coast), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Tristan da Cunha, Tuvalu, United States
(Thirdteen Colonies – Florida – St. Helena).
EUROPE (10 units): England, Germany (Hellgoland), Greece (Ionian Islands), Malta, North
Ireland, Scotland, South Ireland, Spain (Minorca, Gibraltar), Turkey, Wales.
AFRICA (25 units): Botswana, Cameroon, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho
(Basutoland), Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique (South-West Africa), Namibia, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania
(Tanganika – Zanzibar-), Tonga, Uganda, Zambia (North Rhodesia), Zimbaue (South
Rhodesia).
ASIA (18 units): Arabian Emirates (Trucial States), Bahrain, Bangladesh, * British Indian
Ocean Territory (The only inhabitants of the territory are US and British military personnel
and associated contractors), Brunei (British North Borneo), China (Wheihai - Hong Kong),
India, Irak, Kuwait, Malaysia (Sarawak – Borneo), Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine,
Qatar, Singapore, Socotra, Sri Lanka, Yemen (Aden).
OCEANIA (10 units): Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia (Gilbert Islands – Nauru), New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn (Polynesia), Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
New Hebrides.
* British Antarctic (Only inhabited by the staff of research and support stations operated
and maintained by the British Antarctic Survey).
However, it is foreseeable that in some places no extraction can be achieved. In such a
case, the country in question and the reason why it was impossible to obtain the sample
would be mentioned. Care should be taken to ensure that the units are representative of
each ethnic group and place.
REALIZATION OF THE PERFORMANCE
For the realization of the performance we will need the following elements:
- A British flag (Union Jack) of 150 x 200 centimeters.
- A rectangular bucket somewhat larger where the flag can fit extended with capacity for
50 liters.
- Blood samples collected so far in different countries.
- The presence of a representative from each of the 11 towns of Oceania.
- Sanitary personnel to carry out the blood extractions in situ.

1. All blood samples collected shall be mixed in the cuvette.

2. The flag is then submerged in this mixture, taking care that it is well impregnated with
the liquid.
3. The new live-extracted blood units are added to the mixture and left to stand as an
exhibitive object.
After the event, the flag will be left to dry as a document resulting from the action.”
***
Little has been said about the motivation behind the work, stirring up the feelings of the
inhabitants of the original nations rather than highlighting that, as mentioned in the
unpublished interview:
In general, the underlying reason is that I am against any nationalism, and in particular its
highest and most harmful form which is imperialism. This is the primary motivation for
doing this work, which I could have done with other flags of other countries with an
imperial past: Spain, France, Portugal, even the United States.
And also in the project:
“The intention behind this piece is clear and simple: it is a piece against colonialism and a
denouncement of the pain and destruction it has caused in history among the indigenous
population, devastating entire cultures and civilizations. The British Empire is only one
example of this logic of plundering and conquest, albeit one of the most forceful, both for
the extension it reached and for the genocidal methods applied. This is why this piece may
be the first of a series of performances to be carried out all over the world, and similar
actions may be carried out taking as reference the Spanish, Portuguese, French, American,
etc. empires.
The native Australian population suffered particularly harshly from British colonialism
from the late 18th century, when Captain James Cook took possession of the continent on
behalf of His British Majesty in 1770. Tasmania and New South Wales were officially the
first colonies, where a policy was put in place forcing Aboriginal people to live in
reservations. In Tasmania this policy took the form of a real manhunt, carried out by
columns of armed white men throughout the island, which has since been known as the
"Black War" or the "Tasmanian genocide". At international level, British law was based on
the allegation that Tasmania was a terra nullius (no man's land), as land ownership was
based on cultivation. This exclusion of the native population extends to the present day.”
***
The question of colonialism is a recurring theme in our recent works. It is present in “Black
Flag”, the previous work with flags, also quoted in the unpublished interview:
I did some work with "black flags": we put one at the North Pole and one at the South
Pole. This was more about the negation of flags, about taking over the world without flags,
or rather with a flag that negates the others.

Black Flag (The South Pole, 90º Latitude South, December 2015

Another of the projects we mentioned in the interview is “The Three Commandments of

Postcolonialism”, which we are currently developing for the Museumsinsel in Berlin.
There are three very clear points: the first is to stop stealing, the second is to give back
what was stolen and the third is to compensate the victims. I think this message from
Berlin could be extrapolated to any similar circumstance, including Australia.
 The 3 Commandments of Postcolonialism, 2021
Nor are we the first to work with bloody flags as a metaphor for colonialism, as the project
details:
“The close relationship between flags and blood is an obviousness that has not gone
unnoticed by the art world. In 2009 Teresa Margolles brought to the Venice Biennale a
Mexican flag impregnated with coagulated blood, expressing in this case the drama of
violence that drug trafficking has caused and continues to cause in this country. Recently,
young Cuban artist Carlos Martiel also intervened on the Canadian flag with indigenous
blood. On the other hand, work with human body fluids (blood, sweat and even excrement)
also has a long tradition in artistic historiography, from Viennese actionists to Andy
Warhol, from Piero Manzoni to Andrés Serrano, Andrej Molodkin or the aforementioned
Teresa Margolles.
When an artist works with symbols, the result usually generates a strong impact. Although
the intention is not to offend anyone, the symbol arouses a semantic and emotional charge
that never leaves the viewer indifferent. This can be proved practically with the religious or
national symbols, which arouse a great adhesion or a great rejection. In this case, the use
of the British flag is not directed against any collective, but rather seeks to reflect on the
material on which states and empires are built. In the same way, the use of native blood
from different populations and its indiscriminate mixing in the vessel also has a marked
expressive effect, in the sense that all blood is equally red and has the same consistency,
regardless of the race or culture of the person supplying it.”
 ***
Others have focused their criticism on the fact that the action was planned with the British
flag and not the Spanish flag, with a similar past of blood and conquest. In this sense, we
pointed out in the unpublished interview:
Many times in my work I use series with pieces that I think can be repeated with different
meanings in different parts of the world, which is very consistent with my internationalist
practice of working all over the planet, and I think that the project of the Union flag can be
the start of a series that I would like to do with different flags as I mentioned before,
whether French, Portuguese or Spanish or many others that could be the object of similar
actions, because the idea that I condemn is not British nationalism in particular, but I
would be condemning imperialism on a global level, which could start an interesting series
from the piece that we are going to do here.
But this is not just a statement, which is demonstrated in the project we are working on
now:
THE NATIONAL FLAG OF SPAIN
a project by Santiago Sierra

“This project consists of submerging the current flag of Spain in as many blood units as
territories have been colonised by the Spanish Empire since it was adopted as the national
flag (except for the years of the Republic), extracted from representatives of each of the
countries and regions that have been its colonies in this period. This list of countries could
be extended to include the great royal possessions in the times of Carlos I and Felipe II, but
we have taken as our criterion the modern period from 1785, when the red and yellow
became the national ensign. One unit of blood (450 ml) will be taken from a person from
each of these countries and regions. This blood will be mixed in a rectangular aluminium
tray with adapted measurements into which the flag will be submerged.
The intention of this piece is clear and simple: it is a work about colonialism and the pain
and destruction it has caused throughout history among the indigenous population,
devastating entire cultures and civilisations. The Spanish Empire is just one example of
this logic of plunder and conquest, albeit one of the most forceful, both in terms of the
extent it reached and the genocidal methods applied. For this reason, this piece is part of a
series of actions that will be carried out all over the world, and similar actions can be
carried out with reference to the British, Portuguese, French, American, etc. empires. In
the case of Spain, this logic can be extended to the inhabitants of its autonomous
communities, since the first victims of imperialism are usually the populations of origin,
and Spain has had a tortuous history of conflicts in the last century.”

We will end this statement by quoting again a couple of excerpts from the unpublished
interview, which refer to our approach to art practice, so often dismissed as "provocative",
and to the tremendous power that art still retains as a producer of consciousness and as a
trigger for events, as has once again become apparent:
I am a contemporary artist, and as such my activity can be defined in two ways: one would
be that in order to be one I use the linguistic contributions that artists of my times are
using, and the other would be that I use contemporary themes that are current today.
Talking about contemporary things using a current language, that would basically be my
practice.
Art is extremely powerful and tremendously effective for any cause. Imagine what would
become of the Pope without St. Peter's Basilica or politicians without their flags or the
symbols of their parties, etc. Everything that art represents has always been used
politically and very effectively. This case is no exception. Using the medium of art, using
powerful expressive forms to talk about an issue I think can generate a lot in our society
and therefore it is valuable and desirable to make a project of these characteristics.
Estudio Santiago Sierra, March 2021