Santiago Sierra’s latest piece, a non-stop reading of names of Palestinians killed since 1948, opens in London

Spanish conceptual artist Santiago Sierra began a new durational performance in London on 22 September at 6pm UK time, consisting of a continuous reading of the names of Palestinians killed since the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948. Organized by the London-based arts group A/POLITICAL, the work runs 24/7 via livestream, with in-person hours at its Kennington headquarters and daily opening times of 10am to 6pm after the first evening. The list of names was compiled from sources including the Gaza Ministry of Health (via Iraq Body Count), B’Tselem, and The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre, with unidentified victims read as “majhul” (“unknown”), and the project is partnered with an anonymous Palestine-based research institution. The performance is streamed by institutions including Club Saw (Ottawa), Rua Red (Dublin), and Dar Jacir (Bethlehem), and coincides with Sierra’s exhibition “Death & Money” at Brutus Art Space in Rotterdam (until 20 December). The article notes that since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and involved more than 250 hostages, nearly 73,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed in Gaza, citing World Health Organization-coordinated data with the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

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