AFP: The largest museum of African art will be established in Cape Town

Thomas Heatherwick, MoCAA - conversion of a silo into a museum of contemporary African art, Cape Town; source: thomas heatherwick studio

Cape Town - At the port of Cape Town, the largest museum of modern art in Africa will open in the former grain warehouses at the end of 2016. It will also house the collection of Jochen Zeitz, the former CEO of the sports and lifestyle company Puma. "There is a growing interest in African art worldwide," emphasizes Mark Cotzee, who is the CEO of the future Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA). "The market has surged, African artists are participating in all major exhibitions, and major galleries and collectors are interested in African artists."
The museum, located just a few steps from the harbor where tourists embark on their journey to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years, will focus on works from the 21st century. Its permanent exhibition will consist of an extensive collection of African art that Jochen Zeitz has been compiling since 2002. Zeitz's collection, one of the most representative in the world regarding modern African art, is currently scattered across South Africa, Spain, the United States, Kenya, and Switzerland.
The German entrepreneur, now a board member of Kering, has permanently loaned the collection. He has committed to financially support the museum's operations and new acquisitions. "I believe that when completed, it will be the largest museum in Africa and the world, emphasizing the practice of contemporary African art," stresses Mark Cotzee, former director of the Rubell Family Collection in Miami.
The Zeitz MOCAA Museum, with its 6,000 square meters of exhibition space, will host not only the permanent collection but also temporary exhibitions. There will be an educational center for school youth, as well as shops, libraries, and cafes. The total cost is expected to reach 500 million rand (approximately 920 million CZK), according to AFP.
The renovation of the old 1921 warehouses has been entrusted to British architect Thomas Heatherwick. "How do you transform 42 vertical concrete columns into an ideal space for modern art? We can either destroy that structure or utilize it," the architect declares.
The elliptical space will create a large atrium in the center of the nine-story building, flooding it with light through a glass roof. Some areas of the former warehouses will be dedicated to exhibition galleries at ground level, while others will serve for elevators.
For events held outside the museum, there will be an amphitheater adjacent to the Waterfront, the old harbor of Cape Town, which has become a commercial and tourist center visited by all the country's visitors. Another attraction will be a rooftop garden offering picturesque views of the city and the harbor.
The Zeitz MOCAA Foundation is extraordinarily significant for South Africa, as for decades everything truly African has been pushed to the background in this country, emphasizes Mark Coetzee. Thus, a museum will be created in the African context, celebrating Africa, which has preserved its own cultural heritage and written its own history, concludes the director of the future museum.