Renzo Martens, born in the Netherlands in 1973, studied Political Sciences in Nijmegen and Visual Arts in Ghent and Amsterdam. In his conceptual documentary films "Episode I" (2003) and "Episode III: Enjoy Poverty" (2008) Martens used his position as an artist to highlight the exploitation of underpriviledged people by media industries and cultural producers, including Martens himself. In 2010 Martens founded the Institute for Human Activities (IHA). It aims to create gentrification effects in the Congolese rain forest through the establishment of an international art centre there. IHA collaborates with local plantation workers and seeks to acknowledge the economic mechanisms through which art has the greatest impact on social reality, investigating possibilities of local improvement. Since 2013 Renzo Martens is a Yale World Fellow. He participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the 19th Biennale of Sydney in 2014, the Moscow Biennale 2013, and the 6th and 7th Berlin Biennial in 2010 and 2012. He lives and works in Amsterdam, Brussels and Kinshasa.

Martens´s work has been presented in major solo exhibitions such as in the Van Abbemuseum 2023, Balot (KOW Berlin 2022). And most recently, Martens and CATPC are invited for the Dutch Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennial in 2024.

Full Biography

• Out Of The Dark  ›  Jun 26 – Jul 31, 2016

• A Lucky Day  ›  May 2 – Jul 26, 2015

• A Summer Of Films  ›  Jun 28 – Jul 26, 2015

• BALOT  ›  Feb 11 – Apr 8, 2022

• Das Auto Rosi aber  ›  Nov 26, 2022 – Jan 14, 2023

• Art Basel 2024  ›  Jun 13 – Jun 16, 2024

• Art Düsseldorf 2022  ›  Apr 8 – Apr 10, 2022

• ART BRUSSELS 2017  ›  Apr 21 – Apr 23, 2017

• THE ARMORY SHOW NEW YORK 2017  ›  Mar 2 – Mar 5, 2017

• ARTSSIMA TURIN 2016  ›  Nov 3 – Nov 6, 2016

• SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL AT KOW  ›  Jun 28 – Jun 28, 2015

• LISTE BASEL 2015  ›  Jun 16 – Jun 21, 2015

• ART BRUSSELS 2015  ›  Apr 25 – Apr 27, 2015

• ART COLOGNE 2015  ›  Apr 16 – Apr 19, 2015

• ART BASEL 2021  ›  Sep 7, 2021 –