For the Dutch Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, the Congolese artist collective Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC) presents an exhibition titled ›The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred‹. In collaboration with artist Renzo Martens and curator Hicham Khalidi, this exhibition showcases CATPC’s efforts to reclaim depleted plantation lands and restore the Sacred Forest in Lusanga, DRC, along with their broader mission of spiritual, ethical and economic reckoning.
The exhibition takes place from April 20 to November 24, 2024 at the Rietveld Pavilion in Venice and simultaneously at the White Cube in Lusanga—the museum previously established by Martens and CATPC. At both locations, a series of sculptures and films are on view, along with a video livestream that virtually connects the two venues. For these parallel presentations, CATPC crafted new artworks using earth from the last remaining patches of forest surrounding the plantation, and subsequently cast in raw materials extracted from the plantation.
A key part of the exhibition is the temporary return of ‘Balot,’ a 1931 sculpture of Belgian Colonial Officer Maximilien Balot, originally created to protect the Lusanga community from the plantation regime. Loaned from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, ‘Balot’ is displayed in Lusanga for the duration of the show. This temporary return empowers CATPC’s movement to buy back confiscated land, regenerate the sacred forest and promote peaceful coexistence between humans and nature.
Video by MONA productions, commissioned by the Mondriaan Fund, produced & directed by Anna Russ, filmed & edited by Peter Cairns.
