White cube

  • White cube
Genre : Animation
Type : Documentary
Original title :
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Year of production : 2020
Format : Feature
Running time : 79 (in minutes)

Visitors to the temples of modern art in global cities will be familiar with the white cube gallery space. But 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.

This Congolese arts center 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 exhibited in New York. The plantation workers, 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 by Unilever.

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 film established that the local population earned nothing from their efforts. This new film documents an attempt to reverse the flow of wealth and use the privileges associated with the art world to bring about real change.


White Cube, Renzo Martens © Institute for Human Activities - Trailer from OMA on Vimeo.



Director
Renzo Martens

Production
Pieter van Huystee for Pieter van Huystee Film

Co-production
Inti Films

Cinematography
Renzo Martens, Dareck Tuba, Hans Bouma, Maarten Kramer, Daan Wallis, Remco Bikkers, Louise van Assche, Eric Vander Borght, Jean Counet, Deschamps Matala, Lisa Perez, Boaz van der Spek

Editing
Boaz van der Spek, Eric Vander Borght, Jos de Putter, Jan de Coster
Sound
Papy Bambole-Kandole, Dareck Tuba, Philippe Benoit
Sound Design
Ranko Paukovic
Screenplay
Renzo Martens
Narrator
Renzo Martens, Irene Kanga, Matthieu Kasiama, Rene Ngongo
Involved TV Channel
VPRO
Distribution for the Netherlands
Mokum Filmdistributie
Screening copy
Pieter van Huystee Film

Film by Renzo Martens selected for IDFA Competition for Dutch Documentary, IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary 2020

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

With the support of