Renzo Martens will talk on recent developments at the Institute for Human Activities, an organization dedicated to making critical art profitable for the people that inhabit the Congo, rather than people in New York or Berlin. The project started on a former Unilever plantation 800 miles north of Kinshasa on the Congo River, and is currently re-locating, after a series of dramatic events.
Renzo Martens is a Dutch artist and filmmaker and currently serves as director of the Institute. In his first film, Episode 1, Renzo travels to Chechnya to adopt a rarely defined role in contemporary war: that of its spectator. Episode 3, also known as Enjoy Poverty, is a meditation on the political claims of contemporary art and the result of Renzo’s two-year journey in the Congo. In the film, aided by a giant, portable neon sign reading “Enjoy Poverty,” he sets up an emancipation program to encourage local communities to think of their poverty as a resource.
His films have been shown at the 6th Berlin Biennial, Tate Modern in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Van Abbe Museum Eindhoven, Kunsthaus Graz, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, as well as at numerous film festivals and on public broadcast channels. He co-founded the Institute for Human Activities in 2010 with legal structures in Amsterdam, Brussels and Kinshasa.
Today
Ongoing
Nathalie Du Pasquier & Luca Lo Pinto: ON THE SHELF
Talk, 19 October 2024, 18:00
Ghislaine Leung: Questions
Talk, 22 October 2024, 19:00
Dora Budor: Sidebar
Lecture, 29 October 2024, 19:00
Biomorphic Window 01: Pharmakon / Kollaps / Lana del Rabies
Concert, 2 October 2024, 19:00–23:00
„The Frankfurt Prototype“
Opening, 1 October 2024, 18:00
Kasper König (1943–2024)
Obituary, 9 August 2024
Vera Palme: The And
Lecture, 9 July 2024, 19:00
Zasha Colah
Lecture, 2 July 2024, 19:00
The Call
Exhibition, 28 June – 21 July 2024
Dylan Solomon KRAUS: The Seventh Point on the Six Sided Die
Lecture, 11 June 2024, 19:00
Listening Session
Event, 3 June 2024, 17:00–20:00
Tarik Kiswanson
Lecture, 28 May 2024, 19:00
Guerilla Architects: WE ARE SORRY!
Lecture, 21 May 2024, 19:00
Pio Abad: To Those Sitting in Darkness
Lecture, 14 May 2024, 19:00
Sir Peter Cook: CONSIDERING THE PICTURESQUE
Lecture, 13 May 2024, 19:00
Débora Delmar: Property
Lecture, 7 May 2024, 19:00
JUNGE KUNST MIT ZUKUNFT
Event, 4 May 2024, 18:00
Elisa R. Linn: The Berlin Wall as a Condom
Lecture, 2 May 2024, 19:00
R.H. Quaytman: Book
Lecture, 30 April 2024, 19:00
Camille Norment: Cultural Psychoacoustics
Lecture, 23 April 2024, 19:00
Phillip Zaiser (1969–2024)
Obituary, 6 April 2024
Application: Master of Arts Program in CURATORIAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES
Information, 25 March – 31 May 2024
Water Cooler Talks 2024
Event, 10 February 2024, 10:00–18:00
Rundgang 2024
Exhibition, 9 – 11 February 2024, 10:00–20:00
Nora Turato: Lecture
Lecture, 6 February 2024, 19:00
Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé: Unmasking Series–Towards Public Co-creation
Lecture, 30 January 2024, 19:00
Unextractable? Sammy Baloji and Bénédicte Savoy in Conversation
Lecture, 25 January 2024, 19:00
Manon de Boer: Three Films
Lecture & Screening, 22 – 23 January 2024, 19:00
Ann Demeester: The Museum as Transhistorical ‘Garden of Consciousness’?
Lecture, 16 January 2024, 19:00
Moritz Fehr: Evocation, Installation, Simulation
Lecture, 9 January 2024, 19:00
Renzo Martens: More news on the Institute for Human Activities
Lecture 30 April 2014, 19:00 Aula, Städelschule, Dürerstraße 10, 60596 Frankfurt am Main