The plantation is the lens through which we can apprehend the birth of capitalism, colonialism, and climate change. Intrinsically linked to the advent of industrialisation, the profit from plantation labour also financed the development of art institutions. To fully explore these issues, Renzo Marten’s presentation The Matter of Critique will reflect on the possibility for the art institutions to function differently. Can the museum, he will ask, extricate itself from a system of extraction and exploitation to become something else? Can we, moreover, reimagine the “white cube” as the locus for new models of criticality and the emergence of global movement that acknowledges the historic contribution made by plantation workers in the establishment of art institutions?
This presentation will be followed by a panel discussion and the UK book launch of Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens’ Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (Sternberg Press, 2019). Edited by Anthony Downey, this volume brings compiles published and newly commissioned texts that focus on the legacy of Marten’s now seminal film Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (2008).
Schedule
14.00: Public Talk - Renzo Martens: The Matter of Critique
15.00: Roundtable Discussion - Chaired by Anthony Downey
16.00: Book Launch - Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens’ Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (Sternberg Press, 2020)
In partnership with The School of Art, Birmingham City University