Mother City welcomes new cultural museum

THE V&A Waterfront in Cape Town
has partnered with Jochen Zeitz
to create a new cultural institution,
the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art
Africa (Zeitz MOCAA).
The museum will focus on collecting,
preserving, researching and exhibiting
cutting-edge contemporary art from
Africa and its diaspora.
Zeitz MOCAA will be housed in the
historic Grain Silo at the V&A Waterfront,
with the V&A committing over R500m to
the development of the museum, which
will be spread over nine floors, of which
6 000sqm will be exhibition space.
There will also be a floor dedicated to
education.
The new executive director and chief
curator of Zeitz MOCAA will be Mark
Coetzee, who has experience directing
cultural institutions.
Jochen will commit his collection
in perpetuity, underwrite the running
costs of the museum and provide a
substantial acquisition budget to allow
the museum to acquire new artworks
over time, to remain on the edge of
contemporary cultural production.
Zeitz MOCAA is set to welcome its
first visitors at the end of the year.
Until the extensive renovations to the
Silo complex are complete, selections
from the collection will be presented at
Zeitz MOCAA Pavilion, a museum-quality
temporary exhibition space also at the
V&A Waterfront.
The inaugural exhibition, which opens
at Zeitz MOCAA Pavilion on November
23, will present the work of Swazi artist,
Nandipha Mntambo.
Zeitz MOCAA forms part of a plan for
the Silo district that includes mixeduse
developments of residential,
commercial, leisure and hotel properties
with the transformed Grain Silo as the
central focus of a public plaza.