Paul O’Kane, Renzo Martens, Episode III (2009); The Latest Laocoon: Reflections on Renzo Martens’ Episode III (2016)

A chapter of a book that conflates two articles written by me.

Renzo Martens’ provocative film Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (2008) remains a key work about contemporary art’s relationship to exploitative economies. This publication explores the work’s legacy and how it relates to the politics of representation, uses of the documentary form, art criticism, the deployment of humanitarian aid, the impact of extractive forms of globalization, and the neoliberal politics of decolonization.

Contributors: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Eva Barois De Caevel, Jelle Bouwhuis, JJ Charlesworth, T. J. Demos, Angela Dimitrakaki, Anthony Downey, Charles Esche, Dan Fox, Xander Karskens, Suhail Malik, Renzo Martens, Nina Möntmann, René Ngongo, Laurens Otto, Kolja Reichert, Els Roelandt, karî’kachä seid’ou, Gregory Sholette, Emilia Terracciano, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Eyal Weizman, and Artur Żmijewski, amongst others.
This volume is co-published by Human Activities, KASK / School of Arts (Ghent), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), and Sternberg Press (Berlin). It is supported by Galerie Fons Welters, KASK / School of Arts, Mondriaan Fund, and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

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