FORMAT PhotoForum: Enjoy Poverty film screening

For November’s FORMAT Photoforum we will be screening the film Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (12A) S, directed by Dutch artist Renzo Martens, which has been recommended by our FORMAT22 Presents curator Azu Nwagbogu in relation to his exhibition The Cultural Evolution: Identity, Performance and Fashion.

Following the screening we will be joined by Anne Nwakalor, founder of No! Wahala Magazine who will be in conversation responding to the screening and discussing wider themes around the ethics of photography.

About the Film 

Third in a series by Dutch artist Renzo Martens Episode III: Enjoy Poverty. The Artist spent three years traveling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo asking the question: “Who owns poverty?” Examining the poverty-fighting industry in the post-civil war landscape, he films UN peacekeepers providing security for an international company so it can mine gold; corpses of rebels surrounded by Western photographers; white relief workers taking pictures of the recipients of their emergency aid. Amidst war and economic exploitation, Martens sets up an emancipation program that aims to teach the poor how to benefit from their biggest resource: poverty.

“Enjoy Poverty is the Guernica of our age.” – Azu Nwagbogu

About Anne Nwakalor 

Anne Nwakalor is the Founding Editor of No! Wahala Magazine, one of Africa’s first-ever contemporary photography magazine dedicated to showcasing authentic visual stories told by African creatives.

She is also a Photo Editor who focuses on representation and ethics within Photography and presently works as a Communication Expert within the art space in the UK.