Artist Talk: Renzo Martens

May 16, 2014
Event Types
Talk / Lecture
A dimly lit gallery space includes chairs and a screen with someone speaking at a podium that reads "Walker Art Center".

Renzo Martens in conversation with Richard Florida, Institute for Human Activities, Congo, 2012. Photo courtesy Renzo Martens and the Institute for Human Activities.

Join artist Renzo Martens as he discusses his work in the context of the current exhibition, 9 Artists. The talk will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the artist.

Renzo Martens (b. 1973), who lives and works in Brussels and Kinshasa, is known for his satirical and disturbing video documentaries in which he travels to war-torn countries and places himself narcissistically at the center of the action, demonstrating how Western spectators consume distant trauma. For the List, he will present the work of the Institute for Human Activities, an organization he has founded dedicated to the transformation through artist-propelled gentrification of a former Unilever plantation 800 miles north of Kinshasa on the Congo River.