Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Essays on the provocative 2008 film by Renzo Martens, Episode III (Enjoy Poverty).
This volume collects critical reactions to Renzo Martens's provocative film Episode III (Enjoy Poverty) following its premiere in 2008, along with newly commissioned essays on the film's impact and enduring legacy. Investigating the emotional and economic value of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's lucrative exports (namely, filmed poverty), Martens's film was and remains a landmark intervention into debates concerning the role of art in contemporary cultural practices, engaged critique, documentary ethics, the global impact of humanitarian aid, documentary form, and the neoliberal politics of decolonization. The contributors reflect on the critical value of exposing contemporary art's relationship to exploitative economies and how the film influenced their own thinking on these subjects and, in effect, laid the conceptual groundwork for Martens' latest project, The Institute for Human Activities (IHA), a "reverse gentrification" program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Contributors
Ariella Azoulay, Eva Barois de Caevel, Jelle Bouwhuis, JJ Charlesworth, T. J. Demos, Ruben De Roo, Angela Dimitrakaki, Anthony Downey, Dan Fox, Matthias De Groof, Xander Karskens, J. A. Koster, Kyveli Lignou-Tsamantani, Suhail Malik, Renzo Martens, Nina M ntmann, Ren Ngongo, Paul O'Kane, Laurens Otto, Nikolaus Perneczky, Kolja Reichert, Els Roelandt, kar 'kach seid'ou, Gregory Sholette, Sanne Sinnige, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Emilia Terracciano, Nato Thompson, Pieter Van Bogaert, Frank Vande Veire, Eyal Weizman, Vivian Ziherl, Artur Zmijewski
Synopsis
Essays on the provocative 2008 film by Renzo Martens, Episode III (Enjoy Poverty).Investigating the economic value of one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's most lucrative exports (namely, poverty), Renzo Martens' provocative film Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (2008) remains a landmark intervention into debates about contemporary art's relationship to exploitative economies. Throughout Critique in Practice, contributors explore the work's legacy and how it relates to the politics of representation, uses of the documentary form, art criticism, the deployment of humanitarian aid, the impact of extractive forms of globalized capital, and the neoliberal politics of decolonization. The unconventional representation of acute immiseration throughout Enjoy Poverty generated far-from-resolved disputes about how deprivation is portrayed within Western mainstream media and throughout global cultural institutions. Using a range of approaches, this volume reconsiders that portrayal and how the film's reception led Martens to found a long-term program, Human Activities.
Contributors
Ariella A sha Azoulay, Eva Barois De Caevel, Pieter Van Bogaert, Jelle Bouwhuis, JJ Charlesworth, T.J. Demos, Angela Dimitrakaki, Anthony Downey, Charles Esche, Dan Fox, Matthias De Groof, Xander Karskens, J. A. Koster, Kyveli Lignou-Tsamantani, Suhail Malik, Renzo Martens, Nina M ntmann, Ren Ngongo, Paul O'Kane, Laurens Otto, Nikolaus Perneczky, Kolja Reichert, Els Roelandt, Ruben De Roo, ka˛r 'ka˛ch seid'ou, Gregory Sholette, Sanne Sinnige, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Emilia Terracciano, Nato Thompson, Niels Van Tomme, Frank Vande Veire, Eyal Weizman, Vivian Ziherl, and Artur Z˙mijewski.