Renzo Martens
The Matter of Critique–Fluidities

Renzo Martens, artist and founder of the Institute for Human Activities (IHA), in conversation with Ellen Blumenstein, chief curator of KW Institute for Contemporary Art.

In 2012, the Institute for Human Activities established a settlement on a former Unilever plantation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its aim since has been to purposely induce the effects of gentrification, and thus to create a space where art is challenged to take responsibility for, deal with, and possibly mitigate these effects.

A series of events is staged during the IHAs residency and its project The Matter of Critique at KW, which intend to further investigate the economic, intellectual, and aesthetic impact of critically engaged art.

After a short introduction to the work of the IHA the following discussion The Matter of Critique–Fluidities places the role and the agency of critically engaged art into question. Is critical art providing a powerful agency or is it genuinely limited by political, social, or aesthetic boundaries? The discussion explores various critical approaches within contemporary art while also examining the opportunities as well as the limitations and conflicts in the production of critical art.

The Matter of Critique is a project of the Institute for Human Activities in collaboration with KW Institute for Contemporary Art.

The Matter of Critique is funded by Mondriaan Fund, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Berlin.

The Institute for Human Activities is a research project at KASK – University College Ghent.