Santiago Sierra to stage reading of names of Palestinians killed by Israel
Spanish conceptual artist Santiago Sierra will stage a reading of the names of Palestinians killed by Israel.
ARTnews reported the plan on 17 September 2026.
Sierra, who is Spanish, is a conceptual artist, a maker who typically puts the idea for a work ahead of a physical object. He often works through live performance, work made to be watched as it happens, carried out by people he pays to act for him. That has included paying people to sit in cardboard boxes and to be tattooed, according to background published by Artforum, while the Tate in London lists him as a Spanish artist. An online database, Artnet, lists 52 artworks by Sierra on his artist page.
He previously organised a large reading to commemorate those killed in the Syrian conflict. Pairs of Arabic speakers read names aloud in turn, working from a list compiled and verified by a team at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The Art Newspaper reported on 22 May 2017 that 144,308 names were read over more than a week across four cities. The reading ran for days.
Previewing that commemoration, the newspaper said it was expected to last nine or ten days. Lisson Gallery in London announced on 25 May 2017 that a new Sierra performance was coming to London. An earlier report from Artnet on 16 May 2017 had described it as an eight-day performance reciting the names of those killed in the Syrian conflict.
Sierra has used a names reading in Tel Aviv before. He presented a work titled 697 State Crimes at the 1:1 Centre for Art and Politics in the city, with actors reading out 697 names. The overwhelming majority were Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, according to The National, which reported the work on 20 September 2018.
What makes this stand out for newcomers is the use of time. They run for days. The Syrian list alone ran to more than 144,000 names, read aloud one after another.
