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Koyo Kouoh

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Koyo Kouoh
Kouoh at SUD-Salon Urbain de Douala - Conferentie in 2010
Born
Marie-Nöelle Koyo Kouoh

1967 (age 56–57)
Douala, Cameroon
Known forart curation, director of Zeitz MOCAA
Children3

Koyo Kouoh (born 1967)[1] is a Cameroonian-born curator who has been serving as Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town since 2019.[2] In 2015, the New York Times called her "one of Africa’s pre-eminent art curators and managers",[3] and from 2014 to 2022, she was annually named one of the 100 most influential people in the contemporary art world by ArtReview.[4]

Kouoh was raised in Cameroon and later Switzerland. As an adult, she moved to Dakar to build an art career, working as an independent curator and founding an artist's residency and exhibition space, the RAW Material Company. In 2019, she was appointed the director of the recently opened Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. She will serve as the 2026 Venice Biennale's artistic director.

Early life and education

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Koyo Kouoh was born in 1967, in Douala, Cameroon.[1] She lived in Douala until the age of thirteen,[1] and moved with her family to Zürich, Switzerland, where she stayed for the next decade and a half.[2] She studied business administration and banking in Switzerland[where?][3] as well as cultural management in France. She is fluent in French, German, English and Italian languages.[3]

In 1994, Kouoh co-edited Töchter Afrikas, a German-language companion to Margaret Busby’s Daughters of Africa and a collection of writings by women of the African diaspora.[1] The following year, she traveled to Dakar, Senegal, to interview filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. After encountering the city's art scene, including meeting painter Issa Samb, and frustrated with anti-black racism in Europe, Kouoh decided to move to Dakar and pursue an art-related career.[1][2]

Curatorial career

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Kouoh initially worked as a cultural officer for the US Consulate and as an independent curator.[2] In 2000, she met South African artist Tracey Rose and Nigerian-Belgian artist Otobong Nkanga, both whom Kouoh would feature in many future exhibitions.[1] In 2001 and 2003, Kouoh served as co-curator – alongside writer Simon Njami – on Les Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine in Bamako, a photography biennial held in Mali.[1]

From 2008 until 2019, Kouoh served as the founding artistic director of RAW Material Company,[5] a Dakar artist's residency, exhibition space, and academy.[2] Over the following decade, RAW built a reputation for quality exhibitions and became a respected cultural center.[2][3] In 2014, the group faced controversy for an exhibition titled "Personal Liberties", which included LGBT stories. When local Muslim leaders protested and the RAW building was vandalized, RAW decided to cancel the show.[3]

Kouoh has served as curatorial advisor for Documenta 12 (2007) and 13 (2012) and the EVA International (Republic of Ireland's biennial of contemporary art) in 2016.[2][6] For the latter, she organized a show based on postcolonial themes, in part to celebrate the centenary of the Easter Rising.[7] The exhibition's title, "Still (the) Barbarians", referenced the poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" by Greek author Constantine P. Cavafy.[7] It included artists such as Kader Attia, Liam Gillick, Abdoulaye Konaté, Alice Maher, and Tracey Rose.[7] Art critic Niamh NicGhabhann described it as "[engaging] in an elegant, assured, often furious debate with the ideas of 1916".[8]

In 2014, Kouoh was the curator of the education programme at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London[3][9] and helped to reform the Dakar Biennale.[3] She was on the search committee that chose the Polish curator Adam Szymczyk as artistic director for documenta 14 in 2017.[3]

From 2014 to 2022, Kouoh was annually named one of the 100 most influential people in the contemporary art world by ArtReview, peaking at #32 in 2020.[10]

Zeitz MOCAA

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The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa—the African continent's largest museum—opened in 2017, built around the art collection of philanthropist Jochen Zeitz.[2] However, the following year, its director, Mark Coetzee, was suspended following accusations of sexual harassment.[2][11] Kouoh was appointed as his replacement as executive director and chief curator in 2019.[11]

At the time of Kouoh's arrival, according to one newspaper report, "morale was low and exhibitions lackluster."[2] Over the next year, Kouoh expanded the curatorial team and the board of trustees, as well as adding artist residency programs. After a COVID-19 related closure, the museum re-opened to much greater audiences. In her curation, Kouoh emphasizes solo retrospectives, believing that it is the most effective way to tell artists' stories. Retrospectives she has organized include Mary Evans, Tracey Rose, and Johannes Phokela.[2] The Rose retrospective also toured to the Queens Museum in the United States, where a New York Times reviewer described it as dealing with "post-colonial complexities, such as repatriation, recompense and reckoning".[12]

In addition to her role at Zeitz, Kouoh has been selected as the 2026 Venice Biennale's artistic director.[13]

Other activities

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Recognition

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In 2020, Kouoh received The Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim.[16]

Personal life

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Kouoh has three adopted children.[2] She lives in South Africa and Switzerland.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g O'Toole, Sean (27 January 2020). "Zeitz Museum Director Koyo Kouoh Looks to Transform South Africa's Art Scene". ARTnews. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Sulcas, Roslyn (15 August 2023). "Can She Revive the Largest Museum on the African Continent?". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mitic, Ginanne Brownell. (October 1, 2015) Curator Puts Contemporary African Art on the Map The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  4. ^ "Koyo Kouoh". ArtReview. 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  5. ^ "RAW Material". Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Still (The) Barbarians: A Symposium". 29 June 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Rosenmeyer, Aofie (13 April 2016). "Where the Barbarians Are: A Conversation with Koyo Kouoh". ARTnews. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  8. ^ NicGhabhann, Niamh. "Infrastructure and Vision: An Overview of the 38th EVA International." Circa, 2018. JSTOR. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  9. ^ "1:54 Contemporary Art Fair". Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  10. ^ "Koyo Kouoh". ArtReview. 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  11. ^ a b Gareth Harris (5 March 2019), Zeitz Mocaa appoints new director following #MeToo scandal The Art Newspaper.
  12. ^ Louis, Pierre-Antoine (15 May 2023). "Tracey Rose, Artist and Provocateur, Gets a Major U.S. Retrospective". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  13. ^ Greenberger, Alex (3 December 2024). "Koyo Kouoh Named Curator of 2026 Venice Biennale". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
  14. ^ Alex Greenberger (4 October 2018), Chimurenga Named Winner of Vera List Center’s 2018–20 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice ARTnews.
  15. ^ Matthew Blackman (31 October 2018), Zeitz Mocaa: Africa’s private ‘Tate Modern’ must do more for its public The Art Newspaper.
  16. ^ "Prix Meret Oppenheim 2020". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  17. ^ "«In Afrika ist Kunst immer politisch»". Annabelle (in German). 2 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
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