Latest news with #ZeitzMuseumofContemporaryArtAfrica
Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Zeitz MOCAA honours late chief curator Koyo Kouoh
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town will close its doors on Thursday to honour the life and legacy of its Executive Director and Chief Curator, Koyo Kouoh, who passed away unexpectedly on 10 May in Switzerland. Kouoh was a towering figure in contemporary art and known as a visionary, cultural leader and a fierce advocate for African and Afro-diasporic artistic expression. Appointed in 2019, she led Zeitz MOCAA through a transformative period, redefining the museum's curatorial voice and positioning it as a globally recognised platform for contemporary African art. Her sudden passing came just months after she made history as the first African Artistic Director of the Venice Biennale, where she was curating the 61st edition titled 'In Minor Keys', scheduled to open in May 2026. The Biennale has confirmed that Kouoh's vision will still shape the exhibition, to be realised by her core team. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zeitz MOCAA (@zeitzmocaa) In a tribute shared via LinkedIn, David Green, CEO of the V&A Waterfront and Trustee of Zeitz MOCAA, said, 'It has been with shock and a profound sadness that I received news of the sudden passing of Koyo… In getting to know Koyo over the years since her acceptance of the job to lead Zeitz MOCAA, I, in the role of Trustee and Co-Chair of the museum, had come to appreciate a true sense of her love for what art and artists bring to the world. 'She held an intense conviction that elevating African art was her calling and she extended herself to creating spaces and relationships that would make this possible. Her passing is untimely, and I am going to miss her counsel and friendship immensely,' said Green. Tribute Details for Koyo Kouoh Date: Thursday, 29 May 2025 Time: 4 PM (SAST)
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Venice Art Biennale to honour late curator Koyo Kouoh with 2026 exhibition ‘In Minor Keys'
The curatorial vision for the 61st Venice Biennale, 'In Minor Keys', was revealed in Venice today in an emotional presentation at the Sala delle Colonne of Ca' Giustinian, the Biennale's historic headquarters. Originally set for announcement later this year, the theme was unveiled ahead of schedule following the sad and unexpected death of the exhibition's curator, Koyo Kouoh, on 10 May. A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the art world, Kouoh had served as executive director and chief curator at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa since 2019. She earned global acclaim for curating the 2022 exhibition When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, a monumental historical show inspired by Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries When They See Us, and became the first African woman invited to lead the Venice Art Biennale in December 2024. Related Koyo Kouoh, 2026 Venice Art Biennale curator, dies suddenly aged 58 Bahrain wins top prize at Venice Architecture Biennale with a pavilion tackling extreme heat With the support of Kouoh's family, La Biennale di Venezia confirmed it will proceed with the 2026 exhibition exactly as she conceived it, in what will now be a posthumous tribute to her life's work. As they noted, the edition will explore the spaces in which minor keys operate, to conceive "an exhibition that invites listening to the persistent signals of earth and life, connecting to soul frequencies. If in music, the minor keys are often associated with strangeness, melancholy, and sorrow, here their joy, solace, hope, and transcendence manifest as well." Scheduled to run from 9 May to 22 November 2026, 'In Minor Keys' will take place across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and various venues throughout Venice. The full list of participating artists, the exhibition's visual identity, and national pavilions will be officially announced at a press conference on 25 February 2026.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Venice Biennale to honour late curator Koyo Kouoh with 2026 exhibition
The curatorial vision for the 61st Venice Biennale, 'In Minor Keys', was revealed in Venice today in an emotional presentation at the Sala delle Colonne of Ca' Giustinian, the Biennale's historic headquarters. Originally set for announcement later this year, the theme was unveiled ahead of schedule following the sad and unexpected death of the exhibition's curator, Koyo Kouoh, on 10 May. A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the art world, Kouoh had served as executive director and chief curator at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa since 2019. She earned global acclaim for curating the 2022 exhibition When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, a monumental historical show inspired by Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries When They See Us, and became the first African woman invited to lead the Venice Art Biennale in December 2024. With the support of Kouoh's family, La Biennale di Venezia confirmed it will proceed with the 2026 exhibition exactly as she conceived it, in what will now be a posthumous tribute to her life's work. As they noted, the edition will explore the spaces in which minor keys operate, to conceive "an exhibition that invites listening to the persistent signals of earth and life, connecting to soul frequencies. If in music, the minor keys are often associated with strangeness, melancholy, and sorrow, here their joy, solace, hope, and transcendence manifest as well." Scheduled to run from 9 May to 22 November 2026, 'In Minor Keys' will take place across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and various venues throughout Venice. The full list of participating artists, the exhibition's visual identity, and national pavilions will be officially announced at a press conference on 25 February 2026.
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Koyo Kouoh, art curator due to lead 2026 Venice Biennale, dies aged 57
Koyo Kouoh, the groundbreaking Swiss-Cameroonian curator who was to become the first African woman to head up the Venice Biennale, died suddenly on Saturday, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa announced. 'It is with profound sorrow that the trustees of Zeitz MOCAA announce the sudden passing of Koyo Kouoh, our beloved executive director and chief curator, on Saturday, 10 May 2025,' said the museum in a statement on Monday. Kouoh, 57, had been put in charge of the 61st edition of the Biennale Arte, which will take place in Venice from April to November 2026. Born in 1967 in Doula, Cameroon, but educated through her teens and 20s in Zurich, Kouoh had been executive director of MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa, since 2019. It holds the continent's largest collection of contemporary art. She was previously the founding artistic director of Raw Material Company, an art centre in Dakar, Senegal, which had a big impact on her. 'It's the place I came of age professionally, where I really became a curator and an exhibition-maker,' she recently told the Financial Times. 'Dakar made me who I am today.' As curator of the Biennale she was due to present the exhibition's title and theme in Venice in a week's time, on 20 May. In a statement, the management of the Venice Biennale said they were 'deeply saddened and dismayed to learn of the sudden and untimely passing of Koyo Kouoh'. They said Kouoh had 'worked with passion, intellectual rigour and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026.' The statement added: 'Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment.' The Biennale confirmed it was 'likely to hold the press conference on 20 May', which will also be livestreamed from its headquarters. Zeitz MOCAA said it had closed its doors and suspended all programming until further notice. Kouoh moved to Switzerland at 13 and originally studied business administration and banking before starting a literary career. In 1994, she co-edited Töchter Afrikas, which was inspired by the groundbreaking Daughters of Africa (1992), an anthology of writing by women of African descent. She was regarded as a transformational leader at Zeitz MOCAA, where she built 'an explicitly Pan-African, world-class programme', according to the New York Times, which credited her with turning around an institution that had experienced several scandals. In one of her final interviews, Kouoh discussed her view on mortality. 'I do believe in life after death because I come from an ancestral Black education where we believe in parallel lives and realities,' she said. 'There is no 'after death', 'before death' or 'during life'. It doesn't matter that much. I believe in energies – living or dead – and in cosmic strength.
IOL News
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Italian Prime Minister pays tribute to Zeitz MOCAA's Koyo Kouoh
Koyo Kouoh, the executive director and chief curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Picture: Instagram. Image: Picture: Instagram. Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, the head of the top contemporary art museum in Africa and first African woman appointed to lead the Venice Biennale, died Saturday, the Zeitz MOCAA museum said. Born in 1967, Kouoh had headed the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), in Cape Town, since 2019. She was chosen last year to curate the next Biennale - one of the world's most important contemporary art shows - opening in May 2026. The Zeitz MOCAA "received news in the early hours of this morning, of the sudden passing of Koyo Kouoh, our beloved Executive Director and Chief Curator", the museum said on social media. "Out of respect", the museum's programming will be "suspended until further notice", it added. The Venice Biennale said in a statement it was "deeply saddened and dismayed" to learn of Kouoh's "sudden and untimely passing". Koyo Kouoh, a Cameroonian-born curator who has been serving as Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town since 2019, poses for a portrait at the museum in Cape Town, on October 31, 2023. Since Koyo Kouoh took over the reins of the MOCAA, the Cape Town museum has been making waves in the contemporary art world by putting Africa front and centre. Image: (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP) Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Only the second African to head the legendary art show after the late Nigerian art critic Okwui Enwezor, Kouoh had been working "with passion, intellectual rigor and vision" on the conception of the 2026 edition, it said. She had been due to present the title and theme in Venice on May 20 this year. "Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art," the Biennale said. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her "deep sorrow" for the curator's "premature" death. Brought up between the Cameroon coastal city of Douala and Switzerland, Kouoh set up a cutting-edge art centre - the RAW Material Company - in Dakar, Senegal. On Saturday, the centre paid its own tribute to her, describing Kouoh as a "source of warmth, generosity and brilliance" who "always stated that people are more important than things". As head of the Zeitz MOCAA, she positioned the museum at the cutting edge of contemporary art by championing Pan-Africanism and promoting artists from the continent and its diaspora. Focusing on African art was a "no-brainer" as the narrative around the continent was still largely "defined by others", Kouoh told AFP in an interview in 2023. "Africa is for me an idea that goes beyond borders. It's a history that goes beyond borders," she said. When announcing her appointment to the Biennale in December last year, its president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco had hailed her as a "curator, scholar and influential public figure" who would bring the "most refined, young and disruptive intelligences" to the sprawling 130-year-old exhibition. Cape Times
