The strength of art has always been to oppose social injustice. The 60th edition of the Venice Biennale is a reminder that these struggles are significant in every part of the globe. The Western art system is sometimes but a reflection of these injustices. At the Giardini venue, the Dutch pavilion took advantage of its central location to question an entire apparatus.
“The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred” by CATPC, Renzo Martens, Hicham Khalidi, 2024. Photo by Peter Tijhuis, courtesy Dutch Pavilion
Hosted by curator Hicham Khalidi and Dutch artist Renzo Martens, the Congolese collective CATPC fights for the rights of its land plundered in the imperialist era and exploited also to build the largest museum institutions. They were financed through the spoils of war, colonial violence and slavery. «The Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool was founded with profits from the sale of palm oil used in soap production, the Tate Gallery in London was founded with the riches of the sugar cane trade, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne used the proceeds from the production of chocolate, which is also derived from palm oil and the list goes on». Claire Bishop talked about it in 2015, but CATPC has made great strides since then. The Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise is the project by twenty-five artist-workers who use art to finance post-plantation, an innovative model of cultivation by reclaiming land taken over in colonial times for the monocultural exploitation of palm oil, sugar and cocoa. In 2017 the group founded a White Cube in Lugansa with the intention of decolonizing it, although it is not the ultimate goal, but the departure. The CATPC aims to transform plantations into agroforestry systems. To do so, the collective requested the temporary return of the sacred sculpture Kwui dei Pende (called Balot) from 1931, preserved at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
“The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred” by CATPC, Renzo Martens, Hicham Khalidi, 2024. Photo by Peter Tijhuis, courtesy Dutch Pavilion
The artists wrote to the museum: «Your letters, based on our request and discussions, list conditions that we meet to be eligible for a loan of the Balot sculpture. We consider home return to have deeper ecological, moral and spiritual significance than Western ideas around security or conservation. Artefacts are carted away and sequestered in Westen institutions, whose condition reports determine how these objects are seen and circulated. It is a colonial hierarchy we would rather not have imposed on us. It would be a mistake for institutions to normalize the fact that they are at the top, forcing us to kneel when unjust laws, infested with gross Inequality, try to drag us into a new vicious cycle that deprives us of our dignity as a people». The sacred sculpture, according to tradition, preserves the trapped spirit of Balot inside. Thanks to the Venetian exhibition, the sculpture has landed in Lugansa. It was greeted with a ceremony and then exhibited.
“The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred” by CATPC, Renzo Martens, Hicham Khalidi, 2024. Photo by Peter Tijhuis, courtesy Dutch Pavilion
At the same time, its story figures at the Biennale. Pende Vengeance 1931 (2021) tells the story of the death of Belgian colonial agent Mazimilien Balot. In 1931 he was instructed to use any means to collect colonial taxes and to recruit Pende to forced labor on the Huileries plantations in Lugansa. After the continued violence and murders, Kelenge’s chief, Matemo, triggered a revolt against the rape of his wife and other women in the village. It was Shakindungu, as depicted in the work, who beheaded the agent in charge. His body was first pierced by arrows and then dismembered to be distributed in pieces to the Pende, as a trophy of victory. Each of these sculptures is placed on unusual displays made of wood. In what is called an impure space, the white cube, the works appropriate the aseptic environment through history and smell. First made of clay, these sculptures are 3D printed in Amsterdam and then poured with raw materials from the plantations. Sugar, palm oil and cocoa produce a chocolate smell.
“The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred” by CATPC, Renzo Martens, Hicham Khalidi, 2024. Photo by Peter Tijhuis, courtesy Dutch Pavilion
The smell, the process of creation and the sculpted elements are reminiscent of some episodes of colonization in Congo. Lady of Museums (2023) is mother nature, a woman exhausted by the pains of childbirth. It has unearthed institutions that are now sucking its lifeblood. Behind this story lies a tribute to gynecologist Denis Mukwege. In 1998 he managed to help about 60,000 women raped as a result of the war in eastern Congo. Congo Massacre (2023) is the figure that haunts and frightens the people. He is a life-slaughterer. It plunders, rapes, burns, infests dwellings. The work behind these sculptures is reminiscent of a struggle that began and never ended. It’s multi-pronged. The Congolese collective was quick to declare its presence. By arming themselves against an unjust system and fighting for fair change. The artists don’t lose sight of their warriors either, whom they remember with pride. Like the sculptor Blaise Mandefu Ayawo, who died a few days after the opening of the Pavilion. Our thoughts go out to him and to others.
Info:
The International Celebration of Blasphemy and The Sacred
Dutch Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
20/04/2024 – 24/11/2024
Giardini Della Biennale, Sestiere Castello, 30122 Venezia
https://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/en/activities/venice-biennale/
Alessia D’introno has a degree in Visual Arts and is currently attending the two-year specialist course in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, NABA, Milan. She writes for the print and online magazine Juliet Art Magazine. Her critical work focuses on the demolition of historical paradigms to which Italy and Europe have been linked for centuries. The de-colonial practice of her research develops a comparison and an openness towards new methodologies and possibilities.
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