Santiago Sierra was born in 1966 in Madrid, where he currently works and resides.
He is a performer, photographer, and video artist. His work attempts to depict the perversity of power networks, which promote the alienation and exploitation of workers, the unequal distribution of wealth and racial discrimination. He holds a degree in Fine Arts form the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and completed his education in Hamburg with F. E. Walter, S. Browm and B. J. Blume. He began his career as part of the alternative scene of Madrid, and later worked in Mexico (1995-2006) and in Italy (2006-2010).
By revisiting and modernizing some of the strategies found in minimalism, conceptual art and performance of the seventies, Sierra disrupted the flow of capital and merchandise by creating Obstrucción de una vía con un contenedor de carga (1998) and Persona obstruyendo una línea de containers (2009); he hired workers and exposed their precarious work conditions to create the piece 20 trabajadores en la bodega de un barco (2001); he explored the racial segregation mechanisms that result from economic inequality and created  Estudio económico de la piel de los caraqueños (2006); finally, he challenged the legitimacy of a democracy based on State violence in Veteranos de las guerras de Camboya, Ruanda, Kosovo, Afganistan e Irak de cara a la pared (2010-2012) and Los encargados (2012).