Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

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The museum shortly after it opened

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa ( MOCAA or Zeitz MOCAA for short ; German about "Zeitz Museum for Contemporary African Art") is an art museum in Cape Town in South Africa . It stands on the grounds of the V&A Waterfront and is considered the world's largest museum of contemporary African art. The opening took place on September 22, 2017.

history

The silo after the renovation began

The museum was built on behalf of the German manager and art collector Jochen Zeitz in a public-private partnership . There he presents his extensive collection of African art, which he has been buying up since 2002. Among other things, he acquired 85 works of art, some of which were award-winning, at the Venice Biennale in 2013 , which were exhibited in various locations, including in Kenya and near the museum grounds in Cape Town, before the MOCAA opened . The company V&A Waterfront paid around 500 million rand (in October 2016 around 33 million euros) for the construction and infrastructure . According to the contract, Zeitz makes his collection available, pays the running costs of running the museum through the Zeitz Foundation and finances the budget for new acquisitions. He is not one of the owners of the museum. He has loaned his collection to the MOCAA for 20 years or for life.

The renovation under the direction of the London architect Thomas Heatherwick began in 2014. The South African Mark Coetzee was commissioned as managing director and chief curator , who returned to his home country after 25 years. He had already advised Zeitz on its acquisitions. In May 2018, Coetzee resigned for the time being and was eventually released. His successor was the Senegalese Koyo Kouoh .

The German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the museum as part of his state visit to South Africa in November 2018.

location

The museum building is centrally located in the V&A Waterfront on the shores of Table Bay , which belongs to the Atlantic Ocean. The waterfront is considered a prestige property and already had around 24 million visitors a year before the museum opened. The area around the museum, the Silo district, is also to be further developed with the museum as the center.

architecture

The museum building was created by converting a no longer used, 57 meter high grain silo from 1921; the outer shape of the light brown concrete structure was largely retained. In addition to the rectangular, higher part of the building, there are 42 cylindrical former granaries, each 30 meters high, in a rectangle. On the opposite side there are one-story extensions that have also been integrated into the museum building.

The total area of ​​the nine-story museum is 9500 square meters, of which 6000 square meters serve as exhibition space. There are also 18 classrooms on one of the floors, a sculpture garden on the lower part of the roof as well as restaurants and a shop. The higher part of the building is operated as The Silo Hotel , which is considered a luxury hotel.

In the "atrium"

The cylindrical silos were partially cut below the roof, their shape remains visible from the outside. The central area of ​​the building was given a glass roof and a “cathedral-like” atrium was created by removing or cutting some silos . On the outer wall above the level of the roof garden, glass panels were attached that are slightly convex and thus reflect the lights of the waterfront like a “signal fire” at night.

business

The entry fee after the opening was 180 rand (about 12 euros). On Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., visitors with passports from African countries have free entry; people under the age of 18 can generally visit the museum free of charge.

reception

The museum is compared to other world famous art museums. Shortly after opening, it was credited with the potential to achieve a status similar to that of the Museum of Modern Art , the Center Georges-Pompidou and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao .

On the other hand, it was criticized that many of the decision-makers in the project are white people and that the change in the South African art market is causing gallery owners to focus on buying for the museum. Nevertheless, it should be noted that all curators of the museum, around half of them black, have the right to vote in the selection of exhibitions and that 25 curators from Africa are to be trained per year. In addition, Zeitz announced shortly after the opening that he wanted to withdraw from the project in the long term.

The museum was called a "black museum for white visitors". It was also criticized that the museum is planning an exhibition by the artist William Kentridge , also a white man, from August 2019 . The deputy curator Tandazani Dhlakama, on the other hand, defended the exhibition and protested against one-sided views.

Web links

V&A Waterfront with towering silo building in front of the renovation, Devil's Peak behind , Table Mountain on the right
Commons : Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa  - collection of images
Commons : Grain Silo, V&A Waterfront  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ How Jochen Zeitz creates the world's largest museum of contemporary African art. larryslist.com, accessed October 21, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Description on the Zeitz Foundation website (English)
  3. ↑ a b Africa to get its own mega museum. contemporaryand.com on January 15, 2014, accessed October 22, 2016
  4. ↑ a b Sabine Seifert: A whole continent in one house In: www.taz.de, January 8, 2018: “In Cape Town, three white men present contemporary art from Africa. A great show - but black visitors stay away. How much old thinking is there in the new exhibition? ”, Accessed on January 10, 2018
  5. ↑ a b c d Christiane Meixner: Cape Town: A Solo for Art . In: weltkunst.de . December 18, 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  6. ^ Sean O'Toole: A change in leadership. contemporaryand.com on May 18, 2018, accessed June 10, 2018
  7. ↑ Francesca Villette: Zeitz MOCAA fires its director after labor court battle. iol.co.za, July 3, 2018, accessed September 19, 2018
  8. ^ A b Sertan Sanderson: Identity Politics in Art - Dispute over the MOCAA Art Museum in Cape Town. dw.com on July 24, 2019, accessed on August 12, 2019
  9. ^ State Visit South Africa. , accessed November 23, 2018
  10. ↑ a b c d Description on the website of the architects Heatherwick (English), accessed on October 21, 2016
  11. ↑ Admission prices at zeitzmocaa.museum (English), accessed on January 10, 2018
  12. ↑ a b c Rebecca Davis: Zeitz Mocaa: Cape Town's new art museum stuns and provokes. Daily Maverick, September 26, 2017, accessed September 27, 2017
  13. ↑ Brigit Katz: Africa's largest contemporary art museum opens in Cape Town. smithsonianmag.com, September 26, 2017, accessed January 11, 2018
  14. ↑ MOCAA management team ( Memento from January 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Coordinates: 33 ° 54 ′ 30.8 ″  S , 18 ° 25 ′ 22.4 ″  E