In recent weeks, the Russian artist Andrei Molodkin has shrunk the heart of the art world with the announcement that he will destroy sixteen works by greats such as Picasso, Rembrandt, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg or Warhol, if Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, dies in prison. He keeps them inside an armored chamber equipped with a remote control mechanism that, should the news arrive, would cause a chemical reaction that would turn the paintings into rubble in a matter of hours. The action, entitled Dead man’s switch, has had the collaboration of collectors and artists, who have donated their works to the cause. Among them is the Spaniard Santiago Sierra (Madrid, 58 years old), author among others of the controversial Political prisoners in contemporary Spain, the installation that in 2018 was removed from the Arco fair in an act of censure that he then described as “anachronistic and exotic”. Sierra responds via email.
Which work has yielded for the Molodkin project?
I can’t say, if they release Assange you will see it, if not it will never be shown.
What does the figure of Julian Assange represent for you?
Assange faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing true and verifiable information of public interest. The United States is looking for Assange for releasing US government documents that exposed war crimes and human rights abuses in 2010. This man should be memorialized, not jailed. It represents the living proof that reality is pursued and the unique story is imposed. Freedom of expression has been limited to deciding which way we prefer to applaud this absurd regime.
How do you rate the response being given from the world of culture to the Assange case?
Being dissident in the West means social death, silence. There is a canapé McCarthyism, blacklists… everything to maintain a single speech and whoever moves does not appear in the picture. This is the world of culture today. The Titanic orchestra. Journalism should also be very angry because it is one of them. Silences are very eloquent.
Molodkin has declared that the destruction of art is a great taboo, while people’s lives seem to mean nothing. Do you agree that art seems to matter more than life?
The representation before the represented. It sounds strange but it is true. How much is a Picasso worth and how much is the life of a dead Afghan stranger like in a video game? On this planet the answer is clear. The military industry has taken over everything and its business is the administration of death. The other day they ceded the Prado Museum as a snack for leaders of NATO countries and in another nearby museum their consorts were photographed in front of the Gernika so calmly. Everyone uses art to wash the poisonous face of global terror. A square can’t do anything against a nuclear missile.
When or in what situation would the destruction of a work of art be justified?
To save a life, for example that of Assange.
Some critics see in Molodkin’s threat of destruction little more than a banal trick. What would you say to them?
No, no, it has an actual mechanism that will destroy the safe’s contents irrevocably and forever. I would tell them that they don’t know Andrei.
Throughout his career he has experienced episodes of censorship, some of which are as notorious as Political prisoners in contemporary Spain. Is freedom of expression in decline?
There is a state of panic from ancient global imperialism against the modern multipolar world. From the West the world is falling apart but from China there has never been such a promising future. This fear of collapse has resurrected monsters among citizens and among the members of culture closest to real power. Now it’s not tolerant. Anyone who says something unauthorized is silenced, game over. A work like the one I have been developing for decades is now unacceptable. The algorithm that shows you only what you like and hides the rest creates the feeling that we all agree. A dictatorship without tears.
