Between Nicolas Bourriaud and Santiago Sierra: antagonism as a relational strategy

The text articulates approximations and distancing between the work of Spanish artist Santiago Sierra and the theoretical assumptions that guide the notion of relational aesthetics as drawn up by French critic Nicolas Bourriaud. By making use of Tucumán Arde’s situation, which is understood as an emblem of the aspirations of imbrication between the art and politics of a generation, the argument hereby presented underlines the aloofness of those aspirations represented by the work of Santiago Sierra, impounded from the term “relational antagonism”. This text relies on the relevance of this concept enunciated by British art theorist Claire Bishop as a key to reading the critical character of the polemic artistic maneuvers finished in or through Sierra’s work.