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In White Cube, Congolese plantation workers set a new precedent. They successfully co-opt the concept of the ‘white cube’ to buy back their land from international plantation companies, and secure it for future generations.

 

From the violence of the plantation system to the aesthetics of the white cube, the film puts forward a proof of concept: museums can become decolonized and inclusive, but only on the condition that the benefits accrued around the museum flow back to the plantation workers whose labor financed – and in some cases continues to finance – the very foundations of these institutions.

 

White Cube is the follow up to Martens’ 2008 film Enjoy Poverty. It follows the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), a plantation workers’ cooperative based on a former Unilever plantation in Lusanga, Democratic Republic of Congo. The film documents CATPC’s success in ending the destructive system of monoculture on their lands.

 

“Land or art. If I would have to choose, I would choose both. But if I really have to choose only one, I would choose the land. Where can I put my chair and start making art, if I do not own the land?”
Matthieu Kasiama, CATPC.

 

After a failed solo attempt by artist Renzo Martens to resolve inequality through critical self-reflection, this group of plantation workers employs the privileges associated with the white cube to get back the land that was stolen from them. From the historical foundations in indentured plantation labour of art world giants such as Tate Modern, the Van Abbemuseum and the Ludwig Museum’s to the gentrifying neighbourhoods around these museums, from the boardrooms of Unilever to the exhausted plantations of Congo, the film sets a new paradigm. White Cube is no longer content with mere scrutiny, it proposes a paradigm shift: practical solutions for an inclusive and egalitarian economy.

 

White Cube is a film directed by Renzo Martens in collaboration with CATPC. CATPC uses the proceeds of the VOD to buy back their land.