Zeitz MOCAA reopens with proudly inclusive Capetonian exhibition

The exhibition is unprecedented for a major museum in South Africa. After an online entry period, the exhibition saw thousands of city residents make their way to drop-off points across the Peninsula where they queued to submit their entries.

Bringing joy post-lockdown 

With South Africans emerging from a hard lockdown that saw them confined to their homes for months, the exhibition places a particularly pertinent focus on the domestic space through the lens of the art that brought people a sense of joy.

The artwork submissions revealed five themes into which the exhibition has been arranged: The Garden, which explores the life of plants, growth, cultivation and labour; Outside, which encompasses landscape and public space; Inside, which includes interiors, domestic space and inner psychological states; Time, which notes the march from moment to moment and abstract expressions; and Relations, which celebrates interconnectedness, relationships and communities

Koyo Kouoh, executive director and chief curator at Zeitz MOCAA, said the exhibition amplifies the museum’s commitment to providing access for all.

"Art is in the eye of the beholder could be the translation of Home Is Where The Art Is. With no hierarchy or selection, this is an opportunity for us to find out what art means to our audience and by the same token, attempting to find out what a museum could stand for in current times,” said Kouoh.

As part of a re-positioning and re-articulation of the role of our institution, this exhibition marks a transformative shift in how Zeitz MOCAA engages with audiences and foregrounds the creativity and diversity of those in Cape Town.

Looking beyond the reopening exhibition which run tills the 10 January 2021, Zeitz MOCAA will also welcome shows that will focus attention on the work of individual voices. These include Line In The Sand by Haroon Gunn-Salie, which opened on 22 October; Alfredo Jaar: The Rwanda Project in November; Senzeni Marasela’s Waiting for Gebane in December; and Tracey Rose’s retrospective Shooting Down Babylon in February 2021.