Renzo Martens


Renzo Martens is a Dutch artist who currently lives and works in Amsterdam and Kinshasa. Martens became known for his provocations, including , a documentary that suggests that the Congo market their poverty as a natural resource. In 2010 Renzo Martens initiated the Institute for Human Activities that postulates a gentrification program on a palm oil plantation in the Congolese rainforest.

Biography

Renzo Martens studied Political Science at the University of Nijmegen and art at the Royal Academy of Ghent and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In 2010 Martens got approved as an artist-in-residence at the ISCP program in New York. In 2013 the artist attended the Yale World Fellow Program, the leadership program of Yale University.
Martens is currently working on a PhD in the arts at the School of Arts in Ghent. Martens gave lectures on art, economy and representation at: University College London, London School of Economics, Yale University, Goldsmiths, Städelschule Frankfurt, HEAD Genève, KASK and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Work

Episode I

In Chechnya's war zones Renzo Martens is in search of himself. With the camera self-centered, he questions the Chechens on what they think of him. Episode I is an atypical documentary in which footage of a war zone is mixed with a personal story of the artist.

Episode III: Enjoy Poverty

This film opened the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2009. articulates a comment on political claims of contemporary art by referring to its own strategy. The film was shown in art events and venues such as the Centre Pompidou, The Berlin Biennial, Manifesta 7, The Moscow Biennial, Tate Modern, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 19th Biennale of Sydney and several prestigious film festivals. Azu Nwagbogu called the film "The Guernica of our age."

Institute for Human Activities

Martens initiated The Institute for Human Activities in 2010 and is commissioned as the artistic director of the institute. IHA's goal is to prove that artistic critique on economic inequality can redress it – not symbolically, but in material terms. The IHA attempt to improve the lives of people around the art center by effectuating a gentrification program. Since 2014, it works in close collaboration with the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise, a cooperative of plantation workers that develops new ecological initiatives based on the production of art.

Opening Seminar

In 2012 IHA organised an Opening Seminar on a palm oil plantation in Boteka, DR Congo. Congolese and international speakers gathered at the plantation to discuss the history of the plantation, gentrification, and the possibilities for art to deal meaningfully with the conditions of its own existence. For two days, two-hundred people from the local community participated in a conference with art historian TJ Demos, philosopher Marcus Steinweg, activist René Ngongo, architect Eyal Weizman, economist Jérome Mumbanza, curator Nina Möntmann, anthropologist Katrien Pype, and artist Emmanuel Botalatala. Urban theorist Richard Florida delivered the keynote lecture via satellite.

Exhibitions

IHA has facilitated the global dissemination of works of CATPC in the art world, which resulted in exhibitions in places such as the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Artes Mundi in Cardiff, and Kunst-Werke in Berlin. In January 2017, the cooperative opened its US debut at the SculptureCenter in New York. After earlier reviews in Artforum and The New York Times by amongst others Claire Bishop, Princeton professor Chika Okeke-Agulula heated the debate by questioning if this was "The latest frontier in the Western art world’s self-congratulatory and all-too-sporadic missionary work?" The final verdict was made by The New York Times, compiling the show as 'The Best Art of 2017'

The Matter of Critique

The IHA started the international conference series titled The Matter of Critique to address the material conditions of critical artistic engagement. Through these conferences, the IHA brings together academics, artists, and economists, as well as the Congolese plantations workers to discuss the artistic, social, and economic scope of the IHA's activities in Congo. The IHA initiated its first international conference in 2015 in KW Institute for Contemporary Art and in Lusanga. The third edition of The Matter of Critique took place in 2016—again in Lusanga. The fourth edition took place in SculptureCenter, New York on January 29, 2017, with notably Ariella Azoulay, Simon Gikandi, David Joselit, Michael Taussig and CATPC artist Matthieu Kasiama.

The Repatriation of the White Cube

On April 21, 2017, IHA and CATPC opened a White Cube on the site of Unilever's first ever palm oil plantation, in Lusanga in the Conglese interior. Designed by OMA, this White Cube is the cornerstone of the Lusanga International Research Centre for Art and Economic Inequality. During the opening, plantation workers held discussions on the benefits of a White Cube for a plantation with philosopher Suhail Malik, curator Clémentine Deliss, curator Azu Nwagbogu, the president of CATPC René Ngongo, and the Indonesian plantation workers union Serbundo.
In a discussion broadcast by ZDF with the artists Monica Bonvicini, Hans Haacke, and Renzo Martens, curator at large of dokumenta 14 Bonaventure Ndikung commented on this project that "Afrika does not need a White Cube".

Inaugural exhibition "The Repatriation of the White Cube"

CATPC has curated the inaugural exhibition of the White Cube in a network of Kisendus – traditional huts, especially built for the show, dedicated to arts and social events – linked to the White Cube. Different pieces referred to the D.R. Congo's rich history but had until then never been exhibited in the Congo. Participating artists included: Kader Attia, Sammy Baloji, Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, Marlene Dumas, Michel Ekeba, Eléonore Hellio, Carsten Höller, Irène Kanga, Matthieu Kasiama, Jean Katambayi, Jean Kawata, Mbuku Kimpala, Thomas Leba, Jérémie Mabiala, Daniel Manenga, Mega Mingiedi, Eméry Mohamba, Cédrick Tamasala, Pathy Thsindele and Luc Tuymans.

Post-Plantation

The opening of the museum marked the end of its first research programme on gentrification, to start a new research programme on the creation of the "post-plantation". Together with Commonland, it currently aims to create a new ecological and economic model based on art.

Awards