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Renzo Martens

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A photo of Renzo Martens at KW Berlin.

Renzo Martens is a Dutch artist who currently lives and works in Brussels, Amsterdam and Kinshasa. Martens became known for his controversial documentaries ‘Episode I’ (2003) and Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (2008). In 2010 Renzo Martens initiated the Institute for Human Activities (IHA) that postulates a gentrification program in the Congolese rainforest.

Biography

Renzo Martens (1973, Terneuzen) studied Political Science at the University of Nijmegen and art at the Royal Academy of Ghent and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In 2010 Martens got approved as an artist-in-residence at the ISCP program in New York.[1] In 2013 the artist attended the Yale World Fellow Program which is the signature leadership program of Yale University that aims to cultivate and empower a network of globally engaged leaders committed to positive change through dialog and action.[2]

Martens is currently working on a PhD in the arts at the School of Arts in Ghent.[3] Martens gave lectures on art, economy and representation at: University College London, London School of Economics, Yale University, Goldsmiths (University of London), Städelschule Frankfurt, HEAD Genève, HISK and KASK in Ghent.

Work

Episode I

In Chechnya's war zones Renzo Martens is in search of himself . With the camera self-centered, he questions the Chechens on what they think of him. Episode I is an atypical documentary in which footage of a war zone is mixed with a personal (love) story of the artist .

Episode III: Enjoy Poverty

This film opened the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2009. Episode III: Enjoy Poverty articulates a comment on political claims of contemporary art by referring to its own strategy. 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 prestigious film festivals.

Institute for Human Activities

Martens initiated The Institute for Human Activities in 2010 and is commissioned as the artistic director of the institute. The Institute, which is located in the Congelese interior, aims to mobilizes the modalities of art production and seeks to acknowledge the economic mechanisms through which art has the greatest impact on social reality.[4] The IHA attempt to improve the lives of people around the art center by effectuating a gentrification program.

Martens has given lectures on the IHA in Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Wiels Brussels and University College London.

Awards

  • 2013: Yale World Fellow [5]
  • 2013: Culture Documentary Stipend [6]
  • 2010: Flanders cultural award for Film [7]
  • 2010: Incentive Price of Dutch Film Fund [8]

Bibliography

2013

  • T.J. Demos, Return to the Postcolony: Specters of Colonialism in Contemporary Art, Sternberg Press, Berlin
  • Hilde Van Gelder, T.J. Demos, In and Out of Brussels. Figuring Postcolonial Africa and Europe in the Films of Herman Asselberghs, Sven Augustijnen, Renzo Martens, and Els Opsomer, Leuven University Press | Lieven Gevaert Series, Leuven

2012

  • Kolja Reichert, Klotzt nicht so politisch!, Die Welt, November 30
  • Artur Zmijewski, Artists come to bring Kindness, A conversation with renzo martens, in: Forget Fear Berlin Biennial Reader, Berlin
  • TJ Demos, Toward a New Institutional Critique: A Conversation with Renzo Martens, in: Atlántica 52
  • Murray Whyte, “Renzo Martens’ troubling but brilliant message”, the Starr, Toronto, January 8

2011

  • Ozge Ersoy, "So Spoke the Semicolon", in: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Chicago, September 2011
  • Renzo Martens and Eyal Weizman, "Aesthetic Autocritique, a conversation between Renzo Martens and Eyal Weizman", A Prior #22, Gent
  • TJ Demos, Poverty Pornography, Humanitarianism, and Neo-liberal Globalization: Notes on Some Paradoxes in Contemporary Art, SMBA newsletter, Amsterdam, April 2011
  • Dieter Roelstrate, On Leaving the Building: Thoughts of the Outside, E-flux Journal 24, New York City, April 2011
  • Marren Lubke, A Conversation with Renzo Martens, Camera Austria, Graz.
  • Jacob Wren, Une Polemique pour l Art et le Monde, Inter Art Actuel nr. 107, Montreal
  • Oscar Benassini, Detras de las Imagene's, La Tempesta nr 76, Mexico DF, March 2011
  • Maria Eriksson Baaz, Erik Pauser, Mats Rosengren & Elin Wikström about Episode III, Ord Bild, nr 1732, Goteborg, 2011

2010

  • N.N., Renzo Martens, Krytyka Polityczna,nr 24 - 25, Warshaw, 2010
  • Pieter van Bogaert, Ongemakkelijk langs de binnenkant, over Renzo Martens' Episode III, Enjoy Poverty, in: 'Kunstkritiek', Laurens Dhaenens and Hilde van Gelder, Lannoo Campus, Tielt
  • Ruben De Roo, Immorality as Ethics: Renzo Martens’ Enjoy Poverty, in: 'Art & Activism in the Age of Globalization / Reflect #08,' NAi Publishers, Rotterdam
  • Ana Teixeira Pinto, Reality Bites, Vonhundert, December 2010
  • John Douglas Millar, Watching versus Looking, Art Monthly, October 2010
  • Ana Teixeira Pinto, Renzo Martens: Love is Colder than Death, Mousse 25, September 2010
  • Niels van Tomme, Enjoy Poverty: Disclosing the Political Impasse of Contemporary Art, Art Papers, September 2010
  • Kersin Winking, Monumentalism (catalogue), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 2010
  • Kathrin Rhomberg, 6th Berlin Biennial (catalogue) KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
  • Adam Budak, The Human Condition (catalogue) Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
  • Tina Dicarlo & Khadija Carroll, The Action of Seeing, Kaleidoscope, no. 8, 2010
  • Raymond van den Boogaard, Langzame zegetocht van Enjoy Poverty, NRC, July 2010

2009

  • Katerina Gregos, 'Raising the Phantoms of Empire; Post Colonial Discourse in recent Artists' Films', Mousse, no. 22
  • Pieter Van Bogaert, 'On the outside: Exteriority as Condition for Resistance,' Afterall, no. 23
  • Paul O’ Kane, ‘Renzo Martens, Episode III.' Third Text, no. 101 London
  • Anthony Downey, 'An Ethics of Engagement, Collaborative Art practices an the return of the Ethnographer,' Third text, no. 100
  • Dan Fox, ‘Renzo Martens’ Frieze, London, April 2009
  • John Douglas Millar, ‘The Atrocity Exhibition, Episode III’, Mute, London March 2009

2008

  • Coen van Zwol ‘Armoede levert meer op dan goud’, NRC Handelsblad, Rotterdam Nov 2008
  • Jorinde Seijdel, ‘NJOY POV RTY’, SMBA Newsletter, Amsterdam Nov 2008
  • Frank Vande Veire, ‘Une bonne nouvelle’, Notes on Episode III, SMBA, Amsterdam Nov 2008
  • Jelle Bouwhuis, ‘Renzo Martens – Episode III’, SMBA, Amsterdam Nov 2008
  • Bert Mebius, 'Medelijden helpt niet', De groene Amsterdammer, Amsterdam Nov 2008
  • Domeniek Ruyters ‘Renzo of Guy; Het ware gezicht van Afrika’ Metropolis M, Utrecht, 2008 nr. 3
  • Mathilde Jansen, ‘Afro-pessimisme minder aanwezig dan gedacht’, NRC, Aug 2008
  • Els Roelandt, ‘Renzo Martens, Analysis of a film in three conversations’, A Prior, Ghent, Feb 2008
  • Nathalie Hartjes ‘Fatsoen heeft geen waarheid,’ Kunstbeeld NL. Jan 2008

2006

  • Nadim Samman, ‘The bomb drops’, Frieze, The Art Newspaper, Oct 2006
  • Max Andrews, ‘A picture of war is not war’, Frieze Magazine, May 2006
  • Jeroen Laureijns, ‘Renzo Martens’, in ‘Looking, encountering, staging’, Piet Zwart Instituut, Rotterdam en Revolver, Frankfurt, 2005
  • Peter Godard, ‘All eyes are on us, and we’re loving it’, Toronto Star, April 2005

2004

  • Xander Karskens, ‘Renzo Martens’, Flash Art, Milaan
  • Maricke Nieuwdorp, ‘Wat moeten we in hemelsnaam van jou en jouw film denken’, IDFA-krant
  • Dana Linssen, ‘De export van gefilmde armoede’, NRC Handelsblad,

References

  1. ^ ISCP
  2. ^ Yale World Fellow Program
  3. ^ KASK
  4. ^ IHA
  5. ^ Yale World Fellow
  6. ^ press release Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds, 26/05/2013
  7. ^ Cultuurprijs Vlaanderen 2009
  8. ^ Stimulans Prijs Film

External links

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