Koyo Kouoh, the curator and director of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, and artistic director of the next Venice Biennale, has died.
Zeitz MOCAA received news of her ‘sudden passing’ in the ‘early hours’ of the morning of 10 May, as outlined in a post on Instagram. Kouoh’s husband, Philippe Mall confirmed that the curator had recently been diagnosed with cancer and died in a Basel hospital, as per the New York Times.
Kouoh was set to direct the 61st Venice Biennale, which is scheduled to open in April 2026. The Biennale wrote in a statement ‘Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators, and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment.’ The announcement of the title and theme of her biennale had been imminent.
A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the artworld, Kouoh was executive director and chief curator at Zeitz since 2019, after establishing her name through the RAW Material Company in Senegal.
Born in Douala, Cameroon, she her family moved to Zurich, Switzerland, when she was 13. Though she initially studied business administration and banking in Switzerland, motherhood inspired a move back to Africa, choosing Dakar as her new home. Working first as a cultural officer for the American Consulate, in 2008 she founded Raw Material.
Kouoh has also previously taken part in the curatorial teams for Documenta 12 (2007) and Documenta 13 (2012). In 2013 she initiated the educational and artistic programme of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, and in 2016 curated Eva International, the biennial in Limerick, Ireland.
Notable among her exhibitions at Zeitz are When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, which brought together 156 artists from Africa and its diaspora and which travelled internationally, as well solos for Tracey Rose, Johannes Phokela and Mary Evans
In a tribute to Kouoh, artist Otobong Nkanga wrote: ‘Koyo was a source of warmth, generosity and brilliance, she always stated that people are more important than things and we feel her absence greatly today.’
