Events Calendar
Documentary, The Netherlands & DR Congo
English, French & Lingala w/ English subtitles
Visitors to the temples of modern art in major Western cities as New York, London, Berlin and Amsterdam will be familiar with the so-called "white cube" gallery space showing critical art. But this critical art seldom benefits the local economy or position of the people who are the subject of this art. When one arises in the middle of a Congolese palm oil plantation, the effect is deeply disorienting. Furthermore, it draws attention to the often overlooked ties between colonialism and the art world, for example, through the multinationals that now proudly sponsor these Western museums often build with the profits of the colonial system. Building a museum at a former Unilever plantation in Leverville in Congo is part of artist Renzo Martens’s unorthodox plan to jump-start the local economy. Former workers at the plantation make sculptures that are reproduced in chocolate, and then succesfully exhibited in New York. The Congolese people, most of whom earn a dollar or less a day, use the profits from this successful exhibition* to buy back the land confiscated from them. This documentary sees Martens continue on from Enjoy Poverty (2008), in which he encouraged impoverished African people to use photography to exploit their own suffering. On that occasion however, the local population earned nothing from their efforts. This new film documents his attempt to reverse the flow of wealth and use the privileges associated with the art world to bring about real change.