William Kentridge retrospective: Africa's largest modern art museum goes beyond identity politics
South Africa's leading contemporary art museum is about to show one of the country's most beloved artists, William Kentridge. Should race still matter when it comes to art? DW's Sertan Sanderson reports from Cape Town.
When you walk into the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, it feels like you're entering a sacred space. What used to be a 57-meter-high grain silo storing maize, wheat and similar crops now inspires the kind of awe you might only experience by visiting a temple or a cathedral, as larger-than-life art installations in the entrance hall greet visitors.
But since the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA in September 2017, some African artists and curators have questioned the choice of opening a museum that celebrates African art in Cape Town — without doubt the most "European" metropolis of the entire continent.
Located at the city's touristy Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and originally built in 1921, the grain silo was transformed into a museum by the London-based British architect Thomas Heatherwick — and not an African one.
The museum owes its name to German businessman Jochen Zeitz, who developed the project through a public-private partnership and who has permanently loaned his vast private collection of African art to the museum. With a European male philanthropist and a European male architect behind the project, critics inevitably questioned the neo-colonial, Western perspective of the museum.
Kentridge reflects Africa's complex histories'
With one of South Africa's most recognized white contemporary artists, William Kentridge, about to be hosted at the Zeitz MOCAA in August, questions surrounding black representation in African arts and culture are arising once again ahead of the museum's second anniversary.