CATPC, 2024

Video

This video shows how CATPC lives and works on the post-plantation in Lusanga. The land we see was once converted into monoculture plantations where only palm trees were allowed to grow. Both the forest and its inhabitants were exploited for Europe’s economic gain. Today, CATPC reclaims the land to reintroduce biodiversity, regenerate the soil and provide sustenance for the community.

SD video, color, sound, english subtitles
9:25 min
Edition of 5 + 2AP

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CATPC

**Dutch Pavillion at the Venice Biennial 2024: The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred, 2024**

**The Judgement of The White Cube, 2024**

**Résistant déporté et incarcéré, 2022**

**Plantation Monoculture, 2022 by Athanas Kindendie**

**Drawings, 2022 by Matthieu Kilapi Kasiama**

**Drawings, 2016–ongoing by Ced’art Tamasala**

Biography

CATPC – Cercle d’art des travailleurs de plantation congolaise – is an art cooperative of plantation workers based in Lusanga, D.R.Congo. CATPC was founded in 2014 with renowned environmental activist René Ngongo. Over the past decade, they have reconnected to a history of artistic resistance against the plantation system and developed a practice of getting hundreds of acres of exhausted plantation land with the proceeds of their art. On this land they bring back the forests that were cut down by the plantation companies and develop their ecological and inclusive food garden the “Post-Plantation” with the proceeds of their art.

At the heart of that reclaimed land, they built a museum, the White Cube Lusanga. In 2024, they represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale, presenting a dual exhibition in Venice and Lusanga. They also secured the temporary return of the ancestral sculpture Balot to Lusanga for the duration of the Biennale – a powerful act of reconnection between the community and its history of resistance against the plantation system.

Recent solo exhibitions include SculptureCenter (New York, 2017), the Dutch pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), and the Van Abbemuseum (Einhoven, 2024). Other exhibitions include Sydney Biennale (2017), Dig Where You Stand (Ghana, 2022), Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (2024).

Full Biography

Exhibitions at KOW