Elvira Dyangani Ose Joins Zeitz MOCAA As Artistic Director

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Elvira Dyangani Ose began her tenure as artistic director at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town at the start of this month. Zeitz MOCAA is the continent's largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.

Dyangani Ose previously served as director of the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) from 2021 until this year. Born in Córdoba, Spain, to a family of Equatorial Guinean descent, her curatorial career includes roles at Tate Modern, where she contributed to the museum's first strategy for collecting art from Africa and its diaspora, Creative Time in New York, the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, and the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas. She also directed the Showroom in London and curated the 2015 Göteborg International Biennial and the 2013 Lubumbashi Biennial. Dyangani Ose was also one of the curators for“Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica” at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Her appointment follows the sudden passing of Koyo Kouoh, who had served as Zeitz MOCAA's executive director and chief curator since 2019. Kouoh died of cancer in May 2025 at the age of 57. Her loss was widely felt across the art world, as she was also curating the 2026 Venice Biennale. Kouoh was instrumental in shaping Zeitz MOCAA, which opened in September 2017 in a former grain silo complex on the V&A Waterfront, redesigned by Thomas Heatherwick. The museum's founding collection originated from Jochen Zeitz, former CEO of Puma, who co-chairs the board with V&A Waterfront CEO David Green.

Dyangani Ose emphasized the importance of continuing Kouoh's work in embedding the museum within the local reality of Cape Town. She highlighted key programs established by Kouoh, including the Koyo Kouoh Atelier, an artist residency where local artists experiment publicly; the BMW Centre for Art Education and its upcoming MOCAA On the Move mobile classroom; the Pan-African Zeitz MOCAA & University of the Western Cape (UWC) Museum Fellowship Programme; and significant research projects such as“When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting.” Dyangani Ose stated,“Koyo did something that sounds simple and is, in fact, extraordinarily difficult: she began to anchor the museum in the reality of Cape Town. She used to say that when she arrived, the institution had not yet landed in the city, and she devoted six years to changing that.”

She added that her approach involves both hyper-local engagement and connections to intercontinental realities through shared methodologies. Dyangani Ose reflected on Kouoh's vision, stating,“Koyo was building something there that went beyond exhibitions: a way of making the institution belong to its city. I don't take it as an inheritance to administer, but as a conversation to continue and fortify from the perspectives inherent to my practice.” During her directorship at MACBA, Dyangani Ose was the first woman and first person of color to lead the museum since its founding in 1995. She focused on re-establishing the museum's connection with Barcelona, particularly with the Raval neighborhood and communities that had felt alienated, transforming its perception from an“ivory tower” to an institution“porous, open to the Raval and to the city.”

Her accomplishments at MACBA included creating the museum's first development department and strategy, fostering philanthropic collaboration, and presenting internationally relevant programs despite economic constraints. She underscored the importance of ensuring an institution's accountability to its communities, fostering better communication, especially with younger audiences, and supporting the museum's infrastructure and team morale. Dyangani Ose also noted that she and Kouoh shared nearly 20 years of conversations about the art field, including during a symposium at the Art Institute of Chicago for“Project a Black Planet,” where they discussed Zeitz MOCAA extensively.

Source: Observer Arts

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