“Political prisoners” back at Arco festival

Santiago Sierra’s controversial “Political Prisoners in Modern Spain” has returned to Arco, Madrid’s international modern art festival a year after getting censored. The installation is made up of the pixilated faces of various political prisoners, including independence supporters Oriol Junqueras and Jordi Sànchez, who are on trial at the Supreme Court in relation to the Catalan referendum. This time the installation isn’t at Ifema, Arco’s main space, but will instead be on display at Zapadores Ciudad del Arte until March 3. The curator Benito Padilla explained that both the artist and the owner, Tatxo Benet, wanted the installation to return to the festival. “I am very grateful that they took it down” said Sierra, who pointed out that the work has been shown over 40 times in the last year in several locations in Catalonia, Spain and Latin America and has had around 200,000 visitors.