SA’s amazing new museum
A run-down silo has been turned into a museum masterpiece in Cape Town
IT SEEMS just the other day it was a forgotten, dilapidated old building that saw no visitors except the seagulls perched in its crumbling nooks and crannies. But as if by magic the derelict structure at the edge of Cape Town’s famous V&A Waterfront has been transformed into a modern masterpiece. Gone is the weather-beaten façade stained by white gull droppings. In its place is a wonder of cement and glass sculpted to perfection according to a design by one of the world’s most gifted architects.
Now it’s the just-opened 80-gallery Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz Mocaa) – and it will play host to the finest contemporary art from our continent and the rest of the world. WHERE IT ALL BEGAN It may feel to Capetonians as if the silo building has been transformed overnight – but for the key players it’s been a threeand-half year passion project.
The historic grain silo, the highest building in Sub-Saharan Africa on its completion in 1924, had been unused since 1990 and the V&A Waterfront was looking for ways to develop it.
V&A development manager Mark Noble jokingly suggested “the elephant in Cape Town’s room” be transformed into an art museum.
The V&A had already started working with internationally acclaimed British designer Thomas Heatherwick to redesign the monument to Cape Town’s industrial past.
For years the silo had stored hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat, mealies, soya and sorghum for export. But times had changed and it needed to be repurposed. Noble pushed the idea of an art museum, which led the V&A to look further into the concept.
Meanwhile, SA-born artist, art historian and curator Mark Coetzee and SA gallery owner Elana Brundyn crossed paths with award-winning German entrepreneur and philanthropist Jochen Zeitz, then the CEO of sport brand Puma.
Zeitz had often visited South Africa for work and had fallen in love with the country.
He, Coetzee and Brundyn decided to join forces and open a museum that would display The Zeitz Collection, which was started in 2002 and is a representative compilation of contemporary art from the African continent and its diaspora.
Cape Town wasn’t initially in their sights – until the V&A heard of their plans and contributed a staggering R600 million towards the project.
Their masterplan was set in motion in early 2014 when plans to transform the 42 silo cylinders into Africa’s largest contemporary art museum were unveiled at the Design Indaba.
“The idea of turning a giant disused concrete grain silo made from 116 vertical tubes into a new kind of public space
was weird and compelling from the beginning,” Heatherwick says of his architectural brainchild.
“We were excited by the opportunity to unlock this formerly dead structure and transform it into somewhere for people to see and enjoy the most incredible artworks from the continent of Africa.” ART FOR EVERYONE “There’s no museum culture in South Africa,” says Brundyn, now the museum’s director of institutional advancement and external affairs.
“People here don’t understand it. They think a museum is a place where you purchase art. So automatically they go, ‘Oh no, but I don’t have the money to buy so I’d rather not visit.’
“But it’s not about that. Zeitz Mocaa is for enjoyment; it’s to open people’s minds to something they’ve never even considered. We want to show them art isn’t just for a particular group but for everyone.”
And there’s undoubtedly something for everyone, she adds.
For the fashion-lover there’s costume art, which will be on display in February. Work by the likes of Christian Dior will be showcased. Music enthusiasts can enjoy entertainment by singers and musicians who’ll perform in the grandly carved stage in the atrium.
Several of the 80 galleries will showcase moving images across multiple screens as well as sculptures, paintings and photographs, with the setting and colour scheme in each room creating a different energy and culture.
The art will change every few months to keep things fresh and exciting – and to entice people to keep coming back.
Brundyn is keen to see most of the feet that cross the threshold of the museum belonging to local people. “The big names of the art world are coming; this we know. But it’s the local people we want to see visit. Without their support this institution won’t survive.”
To ensure this happens, there will be no entry fee on Wednesdays from 10am to 1pm. Under-18s also gain free entry as long as they have an African passport.
Zeitz Mocaa is determined to invest in its visitors, with two floors dedicated to skills classes that focus on anything from creating cards to sculpting and even lectures by world-class artists.
One of the things Brundyn is most excited about is that once a year auction houses will sponsor someone to fly to South Africa to teach at one of the workshops. “It’s a wonderful experience and a dream come true,” she says. “These are sought-after people, and we’re going to have them right here on our shores.”
Zeitz Mocaa was built with the intention of impacting people’s lives with something they never considered fascinating, Brundyn says.
“One day, Mark [Coetzee, now the museum’s executive director and chief curator] and I were working here at the museum and we saw this group of boys, probably aged between 12 and 14, wandering around the silo district. Security was strict and they were shooed away but we saw them and invited them in.
“After showing them around we asked what they thought. Two of them cheekily said they’d rather turn the building into a mansion. But the third one – who was quieter than the rest – thought for a moment and said, ‘I can now see a museum is a safe place where difficult issues are addressed’.”
And it’s this way of thinking that the Zeitz Mocaa creators hope to harness.
Zeitz Mocaa opens its doors to the public on 22 September. Admission is free for the opening weekend but tickets have to be secured online at zeitzMOCAA. museum. Afterwards entry will be R180 for a general pass and R250 for annual membership.