https://ivansikic.com/projects daily 1.0 2025-08-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467825767276-7DGRK6DU3KMPJXVDWGZ9/_CD_6179.jpg Work - Lima Linda 1.0 After 10 years of living in Australia, Iván Sikic returned to his native Lima, Peru to present Lima Linda 1.0. Sikic worked with artist Félix Méndez (whom he met for the very first time at the moment in which they entered the work). Both artists lived together, in complete silence, inside El Galpón Espacio, a gallery located in the district of Pueblo Libre in Lima for 70 hours. For the duration of the work, Sikic attended to all of Méndez’s requests while dressed as a domestic worker. All communication took place through writing on a mirror that covered the wall at the back of the space. The space remained open throughout the duration of the work. Through this work, Sikic aimed to explore the cultural and social context in which he grew up, where (from his perspective) certain social issues that he left behind when leaving the country in 2003 are still as present as they have ever been, and where thousands of domestic workers still live under inhumane conditions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467816267511-87NXYQ3VLMWR4AQBX95I/_MG_7028.jpg Work - The Gold Series: Madrid Chapter 'The Gold Series: Madrid Chapter' is a four hour long durational performance during which artist Iván Sikic (Perú, 1983) walks, at an abstained pace, through the corridors and periphery of ARCOmadrid. During his walk, Sikic is joined by Mohamad Karaman, a young Syrian engineering student who arrived in Spain as a political refugee in 2013. Karaman walks backwards, while Sikic applies golden foil over his uncovered body, all in a solemn silence. Madrid Chapter is the third part of this series. In September 2014, Sikic made a similar walk through the streets of a suburb in the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. For that piece, it was an Indigenous Australian artist the one who ended up covered in gold. The decision to collaborate with an Indigenous Australian artist was a response to a a commitment with the Australian social context, where the colonial past of exile and usurpation has left marked scars within the aboriginal population. Within the European context, the refugee crisis that we are currently going through places us face to face with the crude reality of exile and trauma that has been forcing tens of thousands of men, women and children to venture out into the Mediterranean in precarious life rafts, fully aware of the imminent danger. Just in 2015, 2,500 people drowned during their desperate attempt. The Gold Series: Madrid Chapter commemorates these lives, while also inviting us to reflect about our own impotence in light of the facts that constantly shape our existence through time. The gold foil takes its inspiration from Kintsugi, an ancient Japanese practice and philosophy where broken ceramic vessels were pieced back together using lacquer and gold. Once mended, these vessels show their golden cracks without any shame, as a silent homage to their troubled history and the inexorable passing of time. In the same way, through The Gold Series, Sikic aims to highlight the beauty that exists within cultural, social and political conflicts and taboos present in different contexts around the world. Like ceramic vessels, each human life is an aggregation of knocks and frustrations, joys, fear and impotence in the face of the transitionary nature of life itself. In relation to Kintsugi, the Japanese concept of mono no aware also touches on this sentiment. It comments on the gentle sadness at the passing of transient things, an awe that turns into compassion and empathy towards everyone and everything that surrounds us. The Gold Series: Madrid Chapter invites us to share this way of looking at life and the issues that surround it, especially during the historical moment that we are now witnessing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467994120374-OUAP5FTPAAA622NVZ5QR/_MG_5948.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1489333653908-NQKG5ZMFGOEUCBZ7YHWJ/16650981_10154498847266871_1843256192_o.jpg Work - Tiempo Tropical Hammock, rotting coconuts, sprouting coconuts. Presented at the '2da Bienal Tropical'. Loiza, Puerto Rico, 2016 Image: Raquel Pérez Puig https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1495668081164-LLC6DKI4PEL0VFQHAPIV/h_t_sikic6.jpg Work - Honoring the Treaties Produced with generous support from Camila Sol NY, 2017 Images: Hans Neumann & Jason Hamilton Honoring the Treaties is a durational performance in which artist Iván Sikic (Lima, 1983) invites fellow artist Paul Cannon to join him in a four-hour walk along the twelve-mile Wickquasgeck trail (now converted at parts into Broadway), the original North-South trading route of the Lenape Indians, the original inhabitants of Manhattan. Cannon is a singer song writer and a member of the Kumeyaay Ipai tribe of Southern California. Throughout the performance, Cannon walks backwards while Sikic applies golden foil over his partially uncovered body, all in solemn silence. Cannon wears traditional costume gifted to him by elders of his tribe. The name Honoring the Treaties is inspired by a powerful 2010 TED Talk by Aaron Huey that revisits the long line of broken treaties resulting in the current dispossession of the Lakota nation, the confederation of seven Sioux tribes of the Great Planes, covering the lands of North and South Dakota. Huey’s talk ends with a call to action:   “The United States continues on a daily basis to violate the terms of the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties with the Lakota. The call to action I offer today – my TED wish – is this: Honor the treaties.”   In August 2013, to mark the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay echoed this sentiment, noting that “even when signed or otherwise agreed more than a century ago, many treaties remain the cornerstone for the protection of the identity, land and customs of indigenous peoples.” She concluded her speech in Geneva reiterating Huey’s call to action: “I encourage States to take concrete steps to honor and strengthen the treaties they have concluded with indigenous peoples and to cooperate with them in implementing new agreements or other constructive arrangements through transparent, inclusive and participatory negotiations,” Honoring the Treaties heeds this call and puts it to action through artistic gesture. Coming from the West of the United States, Cannon brings with him a shared history of cultural dispossession. Walking the Wickquasgeck trail, he pays homage to the cultural significance of the land he treads, re-inscribing it in solidarity. Sikic facilitates this gesture, and amplifies it with a layer of gold. Honoring the Treaties is the third performance of a series. In September 2014, Sikic did a similar performance in Australia. On that occasion, he walked along the streets of outer suburban Melbourne, the city where he lived for over a decade. For that piece, it was Indigenous Australian artist Ian Michael who was covered in gold. The decision to collaborate with an Indigenous artist was in response to a commitment with Australia, where the colonial past of displacement and usurpation has left visible scars within the aboriginal population. More recently, in February 2016, Sikic collaborated with Mohammad Karaman, a Syrian refugee from the city of Aleppo, now established in Madrid, where Sikic presented the performance. On that occasion, Sikic was responding to the refugee crisis that forced hundreds of thousands of men, women and children to venture out into the Mediterranean in precarious life rafts, fully aware of the danger. The protagonist of this series of performances is the human body, the personal body as the bearer of the memories of a community. The gold foil that Sikic uses to cover these bodies takes its inspiration from Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese practice and philosophy in which broken ceramic vessels are pieced back together using lacquer and gold. Once mended, these vessels show their golden cracks as a silent tribute to their troubled history. Honoring the Treaties takes Paul Cannon’s body on a journey back in history, a history of ongoing dispossession in urgent need of mending. Jorge López Canales https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1494342057949-29XNK8MSVNHL5HLUM4UH/d2d+final+image.jpg Work - From Dawn to Dawn From 6am on Thursday 20th February to 6am Sunday 23rd of February 2014, Sikic, in collaboration with artist Kai Bradley, dug out a trench on the north side of the Testing Grounds site, non-stop for 72 hours. They worked alternating 6 hour shifts with 4 hour breaks in between each shift to rest and eat. All the dug out dirt was piled into a single mound next to the artists’ living quarters. The dirt mound was sprayed bright pink every 4 hours on the hour. After each spray coat, 5 items were picked out of the mound. These pink covered items were then bagged, sealed, time & dated, before being put on sale. The value of each item was determined by the minimum wage of Australian Journalists ($21.43 per hour). The first five items were valued at $85.72 each, the last five at $3,085.92 each. At 6am on the third day both artists left the site and took public transport back to their individual homes. This work is a response to mainstream media & mass consumerism. It’s the artist’s view that all mainstream media & mass consumerism items are made out of useless & invaluable raw material that, once glossed over, gain an arbitrary value that allows for their consumption. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1534631251112-HGOFF351CTXCZSYQ2F75/IMG_7204.jpg Work - Safe Conduct On Saturday June 16th, 2018, Iván Sikic carried out his most recent performance, Safe Conduct, at Cathouse Proper in Brooklyn, which was held in dialogue with the gallery's then current exhibition that explored the physical and mnemonic qualities of the home. Using these thematics and the surrounding environment as the foundation for this work, Sikic reflected on his homeland of Peru, which he left fifteen years ago, and the emotional and material difficulties he has undergone to obtain legal residency abroad and establish himself anew, seeking the opportunities that might otherwise have been unavailable to him. While Safe Conduct is based in Sikic’s personal experience, it is representative in form and action of the thousands of people affected by global insecurity and their ultimate pursuit of safety and peace. It is this effort that brings to mind the words of Ana Mendieta from her 1982 lecture ‘Art and Politics’,“I make the art I make because it’s the only kind I can make. I have no choice. The Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset said: ‘To be a hero, to be heroic, is to be oneself.’ I think the statement is particularly significant to the attitude an artist must have in society. Being endowed with thought, how can a person go through life without questioning himself? And being endowed with feeling, how can he or she remain indifferent?” On the surface, the premise of the performance was relatively simple. Sikic's intention was to spend fifteen hours, each hour representing a year lived abroad, manipulating intervened photocopies of the four residency cards he currently holds (Peru, Croatia, Australia and the United States) into houses of cards in front of a motion sensor fan. Each card was spray-painted neon pink, orange and green, a color scheme that directly refers to Chichaculture in Peru, which was born out of the modernization of local traditions and the acceptance and blending of the indigenous, Colonial Spanish and African cultures, and which Sikic has adopted as the colors of his personal, transnational flag. Constructing a house of cards is challenging enough: the placement, balance and tension of the cards must be just right to sustain the entire structure, while the slightest wrong move can level it in an instant. Furthermore, the inclusion of the fan added another impediment to overcome as well as a sense of unpredictability in an already precarious situation. This performance then, would not only be a meditative, reflective experience about his life as an immigrant, but would also, on a formal level, be about amassing materials and making sculpture, about creating volume out of void. Devised with these intentions, Safe Conduct in practice, however, assumed a slightly different form. As Sikic commented, “During long, durational pieces, life becomes part of the work,” and as the piece progressed, it changed and evolved in ways that Sikic had not anticipated. Beginning at 6 am, Sikic spent the early morning hours working in isolation. This repetitive exercise demanded such determined concentration that at times he felt he had no choice but to sit still, close his eyes and recuperate some of the energy and patience he was exerting to build the card structures. But when visitors began arriving, the spell of the artist alone with his work dissipated as Sikic, improvising, invited the visitors to enter the designated performance space, which he had marked off within the gallery, and join him in building their own card houses. It was this spontaneous invitation that changed the character of the performance from being a solitary and challenging endeavor to a communal, welcoming and playful experience. As the focus shifted from the action of one person to the actions of various people, the themes of inclusivity, flexibility and community became salient not only within the realm of the piece but were also reinforced as essential features for an immigrant starting a new life in a foreign place. The ebb and flow of visitors-cum-participants throughout the day left its mark on the performance space: abandoned assemblages and piles of cards from fallen structures were left undisturbed, ready for the next person to take up and use; the friendly chatter amongst fellow builders filled the room and the hum of the fan turning on and off marked each visitor’s arrival and exit. The spontaneous grouping and regrouping of participants also added to Sikic’s invocation of Chicha: diverse, ephemeral communities formed around the common goal of engaging with the cards, building constructions together and relating to one another. The overlapping visits of the participants also allowed for the insertion of their own timelines into the larger temporal boundaries of the piece, calling into question the performance’s borders within time and space and promoting multi-perspectival, contemporaneous experiences of the same event. The coincidence of Safe Conduct with the revelation of the Trump administration’s policies of treating illegal immigrants as felons, by detaining them in camps and separating their families, and the Supreme Court’s upholding of the travel ban halting immigration from Muslim majority countries further emphasizes the symbolism of the house of cards. The instability of its environment, the fragility of its foundation and balance and the value of its building material made of residency cards are tragic metaphors for the strife and unknown fate of the people attempting to come to the United States in search of a better life. As Mendieta continues, “To know oneself is to know the world [….] I know that it is this presence of myself, this self-knowledge which causes me to dialogue with the world around me by making art.” The work’s challenging of arbitrary borders and its embrace of multiculturalism and community reflects the current tensions at play in societies throughout the West and the importance of continued discussion and civic engagement. Through the capacity to give body, language and a voice to topics that offer channels for self-reflection and connection as well as challenge the status quo and the reactionary, artworks like Safe Conductcontinue to enable us to put forward strategies for empathic understanding, resistance and, ultimately, for healing. Alexandra Schoolman https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467828971150-KE9YFSG98KOQKXK86Q6T/Lima+Linda+2_pala.jpg Work - Lima Linda 2.0 In February 2015, Sikic was invited to present a new work at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Lima, Peru as part of DISLOCACIÓN, a group show presenting works by emerging Peruvian artists. Within this framework, Sikic presented Lima Linda 2.0, a 72 hour durational performance with a resulting permanent installation. Throughout 3 days, the artsit worked in complete silence while filling a room inside the gallery with 7 cubic meters of sand by himself, with the use of a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Once the room was filled with sand, Sikic went on to build a house made out of straw walls, a common sight in the outskirts of Lima. For the first two nights of the work, the artist slept at a luxury hotel in Lima and made his way to the installation by foot. The third night, he slept inside the hut inside the gallery. This work is the second in the series ‘Lima Linda’, where the artist explores social, ethical and cultural conflicts he witnessed while growing up in Lima during the 1980’s – 1990’s. In the case of ‘Lima Linda 2.0’, Sikic invites the viewer to reflect on the clear gap between those who have and are fortunate to be able to live in proper and safe housing in Lima, and those who, meters away live in extremely precarious conditions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467816973910-5TNR820F73IZYXE2VEGX/HSSpring14_0400_PhotographyArielHaviland.jpg Work - The Gold Series: Burrinja Chapter The Gold Series: Burrinja Chapter, was a durational performance in which, in collaboration with Indigenous Australian performer Ian Michael, the artist walked for 4 hours while covering his collaborator in gold leaf. For the duration of the piece, the artist that was being covered in gold leaf, walked entirely backwards while his body was slowly covered up in gold. At the end of the work, both artists arrived at a train station in the Victorian Dandenong Ranges, where the artist covered in gold boarded a train and left, leaving the other artist by himslef at the train platform. The gold foil takes its inspiration from Kintsugi, an ancient Japanese practice and philosophy where broken ceramic vessels were pieced back together using lacquer and gold. Once mended, these vessels show their golden cracks without any shame, as a silent homage to their troubled history and the inexorable passing of time. In the same way, through The Gold Series, Sikic aims to highlight the beauty that exists within cultural, social and political conflicts and taboos present in different contexts around the world. Like ceramic vessels, each human life is an aggregation of knocks and frustrations, joys, fear and impotence in the face of the transitionary nature of life itself. In relation to Kintsugi, the Japanese concept of mono no aware also touches on this sentiment. It comments on the gentle sadness at the passing of transient things, an awe that turns into compassion and empathy towards everyone and everything that surrounds us. The Gold Series: Burrinja Chapter invites us to share this way of looking at life and the issues that surround it, especially during the historical moment that we are now witnessing. • Developed under the mentorship of Predrag Pajdic, with support from the Australia Council for the Arts through its JUMP Mentorship Program. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467841719923-R0QBK6LFPVIJXLB5ZN66/Ivan_+2T6A1741.jpg Work - I Live in The Lucky Country and I Love It! I Live in The Lucky Country and I Love It! was a durational performance that took place in Melbourne, Australia, during which the artist performed the simple action of going up and down the steps of Federation Square’s amphitheater steps non-stop for four hours. At the end of the performance (and as a part of the piece), Sikic got in a taxi to Melbourne airport, where he boarded a flight to Lima, Peru, where he is originally from. This work was a response to the struggle immigrants go through when trying to establish themselves in their adoptive motherlands. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1590681250164-8XR2UHDN0ALXOJ2VTOQ0/amorhumano6.jpg Work Amor Humano is a body of work that explores the issue of violence against women using femicide cases in Peru (the artists place of birth) as a starting point, as well as the sounds, rituals and aesthetics that are present in the Huayno culture, a genre of music from the Andean region of Peru and Bolivia. On August 3, 2017, Iván Sikic (Lima, 1983) carried out a collaborative action in the Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) Cemetery, located in Villa Maria del Triunfo, in Lima, Peru. One part ritual, one part performance and one part procession, the work was carried out by 5 female dancers, a local Huayno orchestra made up of 7 musicians and a Master of Ceremony who walked alongside the musicians and dancers while these made their way through the cemetery to the tune of the ‘Tunantada’, while the dancers wore traditional outfits that were complemented by embossed hand embroidered capes designed by the artist, in collaboration with local artisans. This procession, and its many elements that were a part of it, was a homage to those who have suffered or lost their lives for the sole reason of having been born women. Each one of the 5 capes worn by the dancers, carry with them the dates, cities and names of women (taken from local newspaper clippings) who were murdered at the hands of their lovers. At the same time, the Master of Ceremony who joined the procession, read out the names of 150 women from all over the world who have also died as a consequence to this type of violence. Installation Shots: KM 0.2, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2019 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1613576981360-NX7XKLUFWJBLEJE61XY5/09640009.jpg Work On November 1st, 2020, as part of Green-Wood Cemetery's Day of the Dead celebrations, Iván Sikic spent four hours cleaning and tending to the graves of immigrants from the Global South who were buried in Green-Wood Cemetery's Public Lot 14964 during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After cleaning and caring for each grave, the artist said the names of the deceased out loud, as Tariq Allen, a Brooklyn based trumpet player, performed jazz funeral tunes to accompany the ritual. Through 'Conscious Oblivion', Sikic aimed to pay tribute to the life, labor, and sacrifices of generations of immigrant communities who now rest at Green-Wood. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1642007364554-15YHPI4VLVQOGLUAAMAW/HowHigh_Sikic_5.png Work 'How High?' is a performative action that speaks of the experience of being an immigrant in the United States. For 7 hours (one for each year he's lived in the US), Iván Sikic inflated red, white and blue balloons within the gallery space at Essex Flowers in NYC. At the end of the performance, the gallery space was filled with balloons that make up the colors of the US flag, all inflated with the artist's breath. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1652235815908-J7YJWSIC57677Z5SD8T9/000143950007.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1569862570747-T5JUN0O8QDERDL8Y6CT3/embellecedores-21.jpg Work - Portable Beautifiers Portable Beautifiers is an ongoing series of sculptures that invites the viewer to look at mundane aspects of everyday life through a renewed lens. Rather than focusing on the multiple plights that are constantly taking place around us, this series of portable sculptures asks the question of how we would perceive the world if we decided to focus on the beauty within the crises that constantly surround us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1592334223978-ERL9PKLXGFDU2GIHDJO0/Breach+2.jpg Work BREACH is a durational performance that seeks to question society’s impact on the natural world. Digging non stop for 3 hours, Iván Sikic creates a gap on an artificial sand dune that has been erected to protect the coast where it is situated, from the Pacific Ocean. Through this action, the artist aims to re-establish the natural coastal landscape, by creating an opening that breaks the dune and gives the viewer a glimpse to the ocean on the other side. At the end of the dig, an excavator enters the work and covers the gap with a single bucketload of sand, encouraging a dialogue about the impact of industrialization, labor, and capitalism, on humanity and the natural world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1642780077148-OUUV0FOF54V03J69JWT8/000029250009.jpg Work Trashed, 2016 - 2021 In Iván Sikic’s Trashed series, the artist intervenes in public spaces attempting to highlight the invisibility of human-produced garbage and illustrate society’s disregard for the natural environment. Shot throughout New York City, Sikic’s photographs depict golden trash monuments in various locations. Anonymously appropriating garbage bags and other waste left out on streets in New York, Sikic spray paints these objects gold. After this transformation, he returns them to their original locations. The golden trash objects at once become akin to sacred relics, starkly highlighted and contrasting dramatically with the natural landscapes they are superimposed in, thus creating a moment of uncanny tension. Sikic’s interventions activate public space, and encourage a dialogue about the unsustainable relationship between humans and the waste that we produce, in line with the artist’s original intent. After meticulously photographing each site––creating brief snapshots of refuse in their environments––the photographs produced by Sikic serve as documentarian records of a specific moment, time, and place. The images of the golden trash are superimposed onto maps of the sites they were found in. Historical maps of New York from the 19th century––sourced by the artist at the New York Public Library––contextualize the images of trash and situate them in specific sites and cultural contexts. Trash, although seemingly ephemeral in that it disappears from immediate sight once it is collected, ultimately becomes a part of the earth’s oceans, rivers, and landfills – it affects geographies, biologically changing ecosystems for generations to come. Like gold, which retains its value and lasts throughout time, human-produced waste causes irrevocable, lifelong damage to the planet. Text by Alex Santana. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1681662852353-Z9OFE06PFRZC0GE98OAY/PP_Puma.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1681755192330-I5R077HMBCRDVSHN5CCT/IMG_8122.jpg Work Some Things Are Best Left Unsaid (2023) is a provocative and timely body of work that explores the complex relationship between power, censorship, and artistic expression. Consisting of four flags, this installation embodies both the resilience and vulnerability inherent in the creative process. The original flags, a combination of Mexican and American flags, were intended to evoke a dialogue about the historical, cultural, and political ties between the two nations. However, unforeseen circumstances led to the necessity to reimagine the work. In the days leading up to the opening of Art Baja in Todos Santos, B.C.S., the artist found himself under immense pressure from an undisclosed source not to display the original flags. This external force attempted to silence the artist's vision. As a testament to the power of art to withstand even the harshest attempts at suppression, the artist chose to display two white flags in place of the original pieces. These flags represented the deliberate erasure of the intended message, while acting as a sign of surrender against the external pressures. In addition to the two white flags, the artist created a new artwork titled "This Work Was Silenced." This piece features a white flag with the titular phrase spray-painted across its surface. The simplicity and directness of the message underscore the impact of censorship on creative expression. While the exact nature of the threats and the identity of the perpetrators remain unspoken, the work speaks volumes about the power dynamics at play and the artist's commitment to standing up for their beliefs. The entire body of work, including the unseen original flags, serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility of artistic freedom and the resilience of artists in the face of adversity. By refusing to be silenced and adapting his work to encompass the unexpected challenges, the artist has created a profound statement on the power of art to transcend limitations and give voice to the unspoken. Ultimately, "Some Things Are Best Left Unsaid" invites viewers to reflect on the delicate balance between freedom and control, and the courage required to make a stand for one's beliefs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1689187644482-UX70MO39KAIYSVDPMP67/Screen+Shot+2023-07-12+at+2.40.16+PM.png Work This Work Was Silenced (2023) is an artistic response to the invisible forces that seek to suppress creative expression and limit the voices of artists. Originally consisting of four flags, this installation embodies both the resilience and vulnerability inherent in the creative process. The original flags, a combination of Mexican and American flags, were intended to evoke a dialogue about the historical, cultural, and political ties between the two nations. However, unforeseen circumstances led to the necessity to reimagine the work. In the days leading up to the opening of Art Baja in Todos Santos, B.C.S., the artist found himself under immense pressure from an undisclosed source not to display the original flags. This external force attempted to silence the artist's vision. In response to these threats, the artist created This Work Was Silenced. The work features a white flag overlaid with the spray-painted phrase "This Work Was Silenced," confronting the viewer with an act of surrender while simultaneously defying the forces that sought to suppress it. The simplicity of the materials and design speaks to the universal nature of this struggle, transcending geographic and cultural boundaries. Reflecting on the original flags, the artist recognized the power of symbols to provoke reactions, inspire change, and challenge societal norms. The white flag, a symbol of surrender and peace, is transformed into a canvas that declares its own silencing. It stands as an ironic commentary on the paradoxical nature of attempting to silence art, which often only serves to amplify its message. In presenting This Work Was Silenced, the artist invites viewers to reflect on the importance of freedom of expression, the role that art plays in challenging societal norms, and the potency of symbols in our lives. It serves as a reminder that the power of art lies not only in the message it carries but also in its ability to inspire, unite, and give voice to the silenced. This piece stands as a call to action, urging artists and viewers alike to resist the forces that attempt to silence creative expression and to support the brave individuals who continue to create in the face of adversity. Through this work, the artist seeks to foster an environment where art can flourish, unencumbered by fear and intimidation, and where the power of symbols can continue to provoke, inspire, and transform. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1748893518874-ZDEPXLLLTR5D7PZ4T0UO/Peru-2.JPG Work - LOOT In response to ilegal gold mining in Peru, Sikic filled the interior of an abandoned mansion in Lima with 36 cubic meters of dirt (approx 54 tonnes), where he buried a 24K gold nugget valued at approximately $USD2,000. The public was then invited to take part in the work by trying their luck digging for the gold, following a series of guidelines. Whoever found the nugget,would become its new owner. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1642780700481-3BK61ZCRLN3DUL8TQ5SM/FFD24E6B-2C7B-49B1-BF6F-4471C9B201C7.jpg Work 99 Helium filled balloons, 1 2kg brick, 24K gold leaf, string, barbed wire. 'It's My Party and I do What I Want To!' is a durational installation that responds to the widening income gap.1 gold covered brick is suspended over a bed of barbed wire with 99 helium balloons making it float safely. Basically: the 99% of the population holding up the 1%. Credit Suisse and Forbes reported that as of 2016, the 1% own more than 50% of the world’s wealth. This work aims to comment on this disparate and widening wealth gap. Installation Shot: Dolores, Mexico City. 2018. Presented with KM 0.2This work was first shown at Luis Adelantado, Valencia, 2015. https://ivansikic.com/press daily 0.75 2025-01-24 https://ivansikic.com/bio daily 0.75 2025-07-09 https://ivansikic.com/sikiccv daily 0.75 2025-07-09 https://ivansikic.com/contact daily 0.75 2020-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467823490667-OBLP2H9J9XDLX8JEXTCG/image-asset.jpeg Contact 'It's My Party and I do What I Want To!', Valencia, 2015 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/531829b0e4b025dd2620a5d6/1467823358113-01BG1RD1V9J3DVJ1PDW3/IMG_6060.jpg Contact