Renzo Martens to Represent the Netherlands in Venice
Renzo Martens and the art collective of Congolese plantation workers he has nurtured for over a decade will represent the Netherlands at the next Venice Biennale, it was announced yesterday.
From left to right: Matthieu Kasiama Kilapi, Ced'art Tamasala, Renzo Martens, Hicham Khalidi, and Lisette Mbuku Kimpala. Photo: Koos Breukel, 2023.
'Meaningful and sincere reflections will be produced from these realities—plantations and art institutions—coming together,' said Ced'art Tamasala, on behalf of Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC).
'Our contribution to collective memory, by way of an exhibition in the Dutch pavilion exhibition will be a wonderful opportunity to restitute to humanity the fruits of our research in the history of white cubes, which are intimately and often shamefully linked to the plantations, something of which nobody speaks,' Tamasala said. —[O]