Santiago Sierra (b. 1966) is one of the most provocative artists of our time. Until 1995 he lived in Madrid, before moving to Mexico City. His artworks often involve hiring laborers from third-world countries to perform menial tasks, in order to underline conditions of poverty and exploitation, and to expose the modern capitalist system. For example, he paid drug addicts the price of a shot of heroin for agreeing to have a line tattooed on their backs or shaved into their hair. Other works include using a camera to project the word "No" onto the Pope during his visit to Madrid. In 2010 Sierra turned down the €30,000 Spanish National Prize for Visual Arts, explaining in a letter to the Spanish Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, that a prize from the state, which he considers illegitimate and criminal, was unacceptable to him.
Jeremy Deller (b. 1966) is a British artist, curator, producer, and director, who won the Turner Prize in 2004. He often creates collaborative projects, sometimes on a large scale, such as his reconstruction of the Battle of Orgreave (2001), which occurred during the UK miner’s strike in 1984. Commenters have noted his ability to combine a political and poetic aesthetic in his works, which are "on the border of personal episodes and collective history." For art critic and curator Claire Bishop, who criticized "relational aesthetics" for being too obvious, Deller’s work encapsulates successful social art.
