Political artists Andrei Molodkin and Santiago Sierra, and Wikileaks ambassador Joseph Farrell, talk to A/POLITICAL about the sham of Western liberty, Julian Assange, and how art can still transform pain into defiance

~ Becky Haghpanah-Shirwan ~

The heightened tensions of international politics are reflected in the work of Andrei Molodkin (Russia, 1966) and Santiago Sierra (Spain, 1966); two artists from contrasting backgrounds who share strikingly similar agendas through a formal language of Political Minimalism. Presenting highly charged and censored artworks, the exhibition EAST / WEST, presented by A/POLITICAL and currently on at the National Gallery in Sofia, questions the legitimacy of the “free world” in the binary approach to the global landscape. 

A/P: Santiago, the entrance to the exhibition sets the tone with The Maelstrom where you overlay the video with the quote by Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. He repeats:

Europe is a garden. We have built a garden… The rest of the world…Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it…Because the jungle has a strong growth capacity, and the wall will never be high enough in order to protect the garden… The gardeners have to go to the jungle.” 

How does The Maelstrom reflect the darkest elements of western ‘democracies’?

Santiago Sierra: Calling this regime of terror the government of the people is Orwellian. The people of Africa do not deserve this permanent plundering of lives and wealth and Europe does not deserve this inhuman degradation of values. Civilisation exists where there is solidarity and mutual aid, where there is not, it is fascist barbarism no matter what name they give it. Democracy is choosing between two twin dictators every four years. So much evil is disgusting.

A/P: Are you tired of the distinction between East and West and the creation of artificial geo-political boundaries? Whose agenda does this segmentation play into?

Santiago Sierra: A lot, and let’s say it clearly that is an idea of ​​the Anglo-American elite to prevent the union and progress of Europe. The European Union is a cave of corrupt politicians who do not care about anyone’s life or death, only serve their transatlantic masters and profit from it. Here it is about taking over the enormous natural resources of Ukraine and Russia always coveted by Atlanticist fascism, generating a lustfully sadistic war of attrition while they show us their nuclear missiles like perverted exhibitionists who open their raincoats at the door of a school. The exhaustion is total and there is not enough fentanyl to take us all down.

Andrei Molodkin: As a soldier I was punished and put in military prison. We could only sleep 4 hours a day so that you lose your will. They convoyed us with weapons with the bullet inside the gun, so when you walk in front of them in the street you have the bullet on your back. You feel this tension so strongly. The boundaries are internalised. It is the citizens who are treated as animals for a political agenda based on manipulation. 

A/P: Andrei, your new work Bloodline uses the blood donated by military deserters. It is placed on the floor like in a Mausoleum, surrounded by Santiago’s series of veterans facing the wall. How does Bloodline serve as a contemporary portrait?

Andrei Molodkin: When you’re in the military you have to be like a drone, or a machine — following orders without any questions. But of course many people were resisting. During my time I saw my contemporaries being punished for their disobedience. One of my friends was stationed on military storage. One morning we went to the canteen, and I saw a bloodline lasting around 100 meters, like a signature, on the floor. I later understood it was this man who had shot himself in the heart to relieve his tension. We passed this line quietly but the image — his last sign against his repression — stayed with me. For this work I poured the blood of deserters from, for example, the Russian Army, the Ukrainian Army, from Israel, into the empty vessels of democracy. It becomes a memory of my friend. The deserters are the true heroes who refuse to work for the corrupt power structures. 

A/POLITICAL: Why is it important to make a statement like the exhibition EAST / WEST in today’s political climate?

Santiago Sierra: There is evident fatigue with this absurd regime that we suffer. Hypocrisy infects populations saturated with lies that only try to live in peace while deliriously sadistic massacres are incited whose only reason for existence is the greed of sociopathic arms merchants debased by corruption to the core. Openly fascist speeches are smeared with progressive makeup without this idea of ​​progress representing in our eyes anything more than the lie of a bloodthirsty empire that collapses in the face of the people’s desire to live and truly progress in a society without fear of massacre. Permanent.

Andrei Molodkin: During my service in the Soviet Union Army near the end of the collapse of the Soviet Union, my work was to convoy missiles from the place of production to the place of dislocation. As I transported them for journeys of up to a week, I understood the size and the quantity and which warheads could erase different sized cities. It was on these journeys that I started to produce art, drawing with ball point pens to relieve the stress. I now understand the tension, the amount of weapons used in contemporary warfare and on what sort of precarious border we stay. 

A/P: On 2 October, 2024 The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recognised Julian Assange as a political prisoner. The committee expressed concern at his “disproportionately harsh treatment” having spent 14 years detained and explained this has had a “dangerous chilling effect” which undermines the protection of journalists and whistleblowers around the world. In support of Assange, and as a gesture towards freedom of expression and information, in February of this year, Molodkin publicly announced that he had taken $42,000,000 of Art History hostage (including works by Picasso and Rembrandt amongst others). Vaulted in a maximum security safe, the artworks were situated next to a bomb which would explode if Assange died in custody.

DATE OF FREEDOM (2024), a ballpoint pen portrait of Assange, was drawn by Molodkin in February 2024 before he won the right to appeal. The release date was deliberately left blank in the hope that Assange would complete the work when he was released. Since becoming freed, Assange has visited the safe and drawn the release date 24 JUNE 2024 on the canvas with ball-point pen.  

Andrei, do you think the fact that Assange was in the position to complete his portrait could be interpreted as democracy functioning?

Andrei Molodkin: In underground traditions, like Russian conceptualism or alternative art, we try to use the language of power to communicate with power. That’s why the idea of the portrait, like a mug shot, it shows he is a political prisoner, with an empty space for Assange to fill and complete when he is free. Just like my sculptures, these empty vessels which spell, for example Democracy, Justice, Capitalism, I insert politicised materials such as Russian or Iraqi crude oil. In DATE OF FREEDOM the empty space was filled by Assange, and immediately politicised. The date is a reset counter placed in art history. In the time of catastrophe, art history may exist in a new form, as a pile of grey ashes, just like the children in Gaza. 

Julian Assange was released, but he was not released as a free person.

A/P: The existence of political prisoners is said to serve as a critical indicator of the health of a nation’s democratic institutions and the rule of law. Santiago, what was the reaction to your work Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain when you first exhibited it in 2018? How has the work been utilised by community groups?

Santiago Sierra: The reaction was so hysterical that it produced the first recorded censorship at the Madrid Art Fair, which had become a catwalk for the most corrupt monarchy in Europe. How the censors, as testicular as they lacked the slightest intelligence, caused the opposite effect to that desired and currently I can proudly say that the work no longer belongs to me because it has become an instrument of vindication and struggle of all groups retaliated for wanting a better world. Never has one of my works been exhibited so much and in so many different places. Spontaneous presentations were made that we sometimes didn’t even know about. People would simply paste the images on the walls and advertise it as an exhibition. I had never before seen a crowd shouting for freedom in front of a work of art, neither mine nor any other artist’s, and this happened with this work. You can’t imagine the emotion that seeing such an impact caused in me, it didn’t matter who the author was, the work belonged to everyone.

A/P: Joseph, how useful is culture in the fight for democracy?

Joseph Farrell: Art has the power to transform political rhetoric into something visceral and urgent. Art and culture have always been sanctuaries for political expression, thriving even under authoritarian regimes. They’ve offered a space for dissenting voices and truth-telling when other avenues were silenced. Political art isn’t just commentary—it’s an act of defiance. The image of Julian Assange within this exhibition stands as a symbol of resistance, free speech, and the human cost of truth-telling. Created during his incarceration for practicing journalism, the work was shadowed by the uncertainty of his survival. Its completion—by his own hand—transforms it into more than art. It becomes a testament to his endurance and the pursuit of truth. This piece bridges the worlds of culture, art, politics, media, and justice, challenging the viewer to confront the essential fight for transparency in an age where truth is increasingly under siege. While Julian is now free, the struggle to liberate journalism and protect those who speak truth to power is far from over. This work isn’t just a reminder of what’s been fought for—it’s a call to action.

EAST / WEST continues at The National Gallery of Bulgaria until 16 February 2025