Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, who was chosen to guide the 2026 Venice Biennale, died instantly on the age of 57 on Saturday, Might 10. Her husband, Philippe Mall, confirmed with the New York Occasions that Kouoh’s dying was attributed to her latest most cancers prognosis.
Appointed as the subsequent Venice Biennale’s inventive director in December, Kouoh would have been the primary African girl to supervise the worldwide exhibition, whose theme and title she was reportedly slated to announce on Might 20. Kouoh had additionally served as the chief director and chief curator of Zeitz Museum of Up to date Artwork Africa (MOCAA) in Cape City, South Africa, since 2019. In mild of Kouoh’s premature passing, the museum closed its doorways and suspended programming by way of at the moment, Might 12, and has invited her mates, family members, and people impacted by her work to dedicate bodily or digital tributes in her reminiscence.
Kouoh was born in 1967 in Douala, a coastal metropolis in Cameroon, and moved to Zurich together with her household as an adolescent. She pursued an training in enterprise administration and banking, however held a profession as a social employee, primarily helping migrant ladies. She quickly established a writing and enhancing profession, notably co-editing the German-language anthology Töchter Afrikas (1994), which was impressed by Ghanian-British writer Margaret Busby’s Daughters of Africa (1992).
Koyo Kouoh poses throughout a photoshoot. (photograph by Mirjam Kluka, courtesy the museum and La Biennale di Venezia)
Within the mid-’90s, Kouoh returned to Africa by means of Dakar, Senegal, making her full pivot to the humanities and tradition sector as an impartial curator. Kouoh was introduced on as a curatorial advisor to Documenta 12 in 2007 and Documenta 13 in 2012, and have become the founding inventive director of Dakar’s RAW Materials Firm artist residency, exhibition house, and academy in 2008. She was additionally instrumental in growing the 1-54 Up to date African artwork honest, which launched in 2013 and held its eleventh New York iteration final weekend, having conceived of its Discussion board program and curated its Schooling program for eight consecutive editions.
Kouoh joined Zeitz MOCAA in 2019 within the wake of former Director Max Coetzee’s resignation as a consequence of an expert conduct investigation, steering the museum by way of its transitional interval and the crest of the COVID-19 pandemic. She led a number of important exhibitions championing Pan-African narratives, together with When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Portray (2022–23), and the solo retrospectives of South African artists Tracey Rose and Johannes Phokela, in addition to Nigerian-British artist Mary Evans.
In December, Kouoh mentioned in an announcement that it could be a “once-in-a-lifetime honor and privilege” to guide the subsequent Venice Biennale.
“Koyo’s favorite adage was that people are more important than things, and she lived this philosophy of care throughout her life and work,” Claire Breukel, head of World Patronage at Zeitz MOCAA, informed Hyperallergic.
“Her life’s work of fighting for equity and ensuring Black creative voices are properly heard, understood and held will never be forgotten and we have to continue to build on her immense contributions to the field,” Breukel continued. “She is greatly missed.”
“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 Biennale committee shared in a memorial assertion for Kouoh.
Kouoh is survived by her husband Philippe, her 4 kids, her mom Agnes Steidl, and her stepfather Anton Steidl.
