ROTTERDAM.- From 20 September to 20 December 2026, Brutus Art Space presents DEATH & MONEY by Santiago Sierra, the largest solo exhibition of the artist's work ever presented in the Netherlands. Curated by A/POLITICAL, the exhibition brings together existing and newly commissioned works that expose the ongoing geopolitical entanglement of war and profit.
Brutus director Sanne ten Brink: "Santiago Sierra creates work that challenges, provokes and sparks debate. That is precisely why we believe it is important to show his work. With DEATH & MONEY, he poses an uncomfortable yet urgent question: how do we relate to war, violence and injustice when we are confronted with them on a daily basis?"
Santiago Sierra, one of the most controversial artists of our time
Santiago Sierra's work examines the mechanisms of labour, inequality, state power and economic exploitation. With DEATH & MONEY, he reveals how violence, representation and economic interests have become increasingly intertwined in a world where war, inequality and exclusion form part of broader political and economic structures. The exhibition serves as a warning. It unveils the hard truths of global politics while inviting visitors to reflect on their own position and vulnerabilities within the political, economic and social systems of which they are a part.
DEATH & MONEY comprises seven monumental works.
In De Barbaar, The Copenhagen Declaration (2014), a collaboration between Santiago Sierra and Jens Haaning, comprises the monumental text TIRED OF THIS GLOBAL SADISTIC REGIME.
At the heart of the exhibition are extended durational performances that acknowledge the victims of state violence and political conflict. In 1549 State Crimes (2007), the names, dates, locations and circumstances of 1,549 people who disappeared or were killed by order of the Mexican state between 1968 and 2007 are recited. A similar format is employed in The Names of Those Killed in the Syrian Conflict Between the 15th March 2011 and the 31st December 2016 (2017), in which the names of 144,308 victims of the Syrian civil war are read aloud continuously over the course of eight days.
Also included in the exhibition is 25000000 UAH (2017). For this work, three Ukrainian women counted twenty-five million Ukrainian hryvnia continuously for twelve hours - at the time equivalent to one million US dollars. The sound of the counting, audible throughout the exhibition, exposes the relationship between money, labour and power.
Across multiple locations within the exhibition Sierra presents 2 Exercise Sequences for a Popular Gymnastics (2023-2026). Working with people from the Antifascist community in Madrid, the Morro Dois Irmaos neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro and Nezahualcyotl in Mexico, amongst others, the series depicts positions of submission typically enforced by police and security forces. The work functions as a reference to the first stage of repression that governments can impose upon their own citizens.
Sierra's presence extends beyond the exhibition space itself. On the faade of De Kathedraal appears The Three Commandments of Post-Colonialism, consisting of the statements STOP THE STEALING, RETURN THE STOLEN and COMPENSATE THE VICTIMS. The installation serves as a direct call for recognition of colonial dispossession and historical injustice.
A new commission
The exhibition premieres a new performance: ___ State Crimes (the final number will be announced on 31 August 2026). The work consists of a recitation of the names of Palestinians killed as a result of the Israeli state, its forces and settlers from the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948 to the present day. The performance will begin live at A/POLITICAL in London on 21 September 2026 and will be streamed internationally to Brutus and partner institutions twenty-four hours a day until the entire list has been read.
SANTIAGO SIERRA
Santiago Sierra was born in Madrid in 1966, where he lives and works. He studied Fine Arts at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg (HFBK) between 1989 and 1991, as well as at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City between 1995 and 1997. He has carried out provocative actions around the world. Influenced by the formal language of the minimal and conceptual art movements of the 1960s and 70s, Santiago Sierra's work addresses the hierarchies of power and class that operate in our modern society and everyday existence.
