White Cube

In 2009, Dutch artist Renzo Martens made the film Enjoy Poverty. During the screening at in London's Tate Modern, he noticed the omnipresence of the Unilever logo in the museum. It prompted Martens to take a closer look at the relationship between western museums, the value of art and the corporate world. What was Unilever's role in Congo? Martens tells the story in his new film White Cube.

In 1911, the company's predecessor established a large palm oil plantation in Lusanga. The profits made there partly benefited western museums. After Unilever had left, a group of former plantation workers formed a network of artists. They created self-portraits from river clay that were then cast in chocolate and sold in Europe. The profits were used to buy back the land of Unilever. To secure their future, Martens initiated the making of the White Cube at the site, an art space designed by the Dutch architectural studio OMA.