Renzo Martens

Martens made his first film, Episode I, in 2000 in Grozny, in Chechnya's war zones. The film is an atypical documentary in which footage of a war zone is mixed with a personal (love) story of the artist. Martens is in search of himself; with the camera self-centered, he questions the Chechens on what they think of him.[8]

Episode III: Enjoy Poverty articulates a comment on the political claims of contemporary art by referring to its own strategy. This film opened the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2009. 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 film festivals.[9] Azu Nwagbogu (Founder and Director of African Artists’ Foundation and Director of Lagos Photo)[10] called the film "The Guernica of our time."[11]

Martens is commissioned as the artistic director of the art institute Human Activities, founded in 2012. HA's goal is to prove that artistic critique on economic inequality can also do something about this inequality materially, instead of only symbolically. Human Activities attempts to improve the lives of people around the art center by effectuating a 'reverse gentrification program'. Since 2014, it works in close collaboration with the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), a cooperative of plantation workers that develops new ecological initiatives based on the production of art.[9] CATPC operates from a former Unilever plantation, where they built a fully equipped arts center designed by OMA. The plantation workers who cannot earn a living from production labor, live off of their artistic engagement with plantation labor. The profits from the art sales are partly used to buy back the land, which has been exhausted after 100 years of monoculture. Subsequently, a lot of work is done to make the land fertile and usable again. This way, the residents regain control of the means of production on the plantation.[4]

In 2012, Human Activities 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.[12]

Human Activities has facilitated the global dissemination of works by 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, WIELS in Brussels, EYE Film Institute Netherlands in Amsterdam, M HKA in Antwerp, Art Basel, Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, Murray Art Museum Albury, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Hayy Jameel in Jeddah and KOW gallery in Berlin. In January 2017, the cooperative opened its US debut at the SculptureCenter in New York.[13] 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?"[14][15][16] Meanwhile, The New York Times added the exhibition to their list of 'The Best Art of 2017'.[17]

Human Activities started the international conference series titled The Matter of Critique to address the material conditions of critical artistic engagement. Through these conferences, Human Activities brings together academics, artists, and economists, as well as the Congolese plantations workers to discuss the artistic, social, and economic scope of its activities in Congo. Human Activities initiated its first international conference in 2015 at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art[18] and in Lusanga.[19] The third edition also took place in Lusanga, in 2016.[20] The fourth edition took place at the SculptureCenter, New York, on January 29, 2017[21] with notably Ariella Azoulay, Simon Gikandi, David Joselit, Michael Taussig and CATPC artist Matthieu Kasiama.

On April 21, 2017, Human Activities and CATPC opened a White Cube[22] on the site of Unilever's first ever palm oil plantation, in Lusanga (formerly Leverville) in the Congolese interior. Designed by OMA, this White Cube is the cornerstone of the Lusanga International Research Centre for Art and Economic Inequality (LIRCAEI).[23] 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 "Africa does not need a White Cube".[24] On Designboom, the White Cube was listed as one of the 'TOP 10 museums and cultural venues of 2017'.[25]

CATPC 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.[26]

The opening of the White Cube museum marked the end of Human Activities' first research programme on gentrification. The institute has now started a new research programme on the creation of the "post-plantation": a new ecological and economic model based on art.[27][28]

With the support of Human Activities, the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC) launched a collection of 306 NFTs in response to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA)'s refusal to loan a Congolese sculpture, the "Diviner's Figure representing Belgian Colonial Officer Maximilien Balot" from 1931, for an exhibition at CATPC's White Cube museum. CATPC is one of the first to use a digital means of art restitution by employing NFTs. With the sale of the NFTs, the collective will buy back and restore land that has been exhausted due to monoculture in Lusanga, Congo.[29] There is controversy surrounding the project due to the alleged copyright infringement of the VMFA's photographs of the sculpture, which CATPC used to create the NFTs, with press coverage in The Guardian, Artnet and more.[30] The VMFA claims that the use of the photographs “violates our open access policy and is unacceptable and unprofessional”.[31] In an article in The Art Newspaper, CATPC member Cedart Tamasala responds to the debate, stating that:

“The sculpture has been in Richmond for a long time,” Tamasala says. “Keeping it and not sharing it is a form of violence. We come from a country that has perpetual war. We don’t want war. We do not want to oppose the museum. We are not here to have a conflict with them. The only thing we want is to rekindle a relationship with the sculpture. It is important to us. But we can only know it from afar. We want to change that.” - Cedart Tamasala (CATPC)[32]

In Renzo Martens’ latest film White Cube (2020), created in collaboration with the Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), he follows the plantation workers as they co-opt the concept of the ‘white cube’ to buy back their land from international plantation companies and secure it for future generations.

“Land or art. If I would have to choose, I would choose both. But if I really have to choose only one, I would choose the land. Where can I put my chair and start making art, if I do not own the land?” – Matthieu Kasiama (CATPC) in White Cube.[33]

The film premiered simultaneously at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and in Lusanga, D.R. Congo, after which there was a 'global museum launch' in which White Cube was screened and discussions were held at multiple art institutions around the world, amongst others including the National Museum in Kinshasa, KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art in Tamale, African Artists’ Foundation in Lagos, Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, MPavilion in Melbourne, and Museum MACAN in Jakarta.[34] About the film, Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times:

"In short, the project, de-exoticizing and re-exoticizing, is politically problematic on almost every level, and it’s fascinating for that reason. It raises questions about imbalances of power based on race and class that are at the very foundation of modern Western culture, but that our big museums have resolutely refused to address, never mind tried to answer."[35]