MEDIA RELEASE
Zeitz MOCAA presents A Protea Is Not a Flower
- A multigenerational exhibition featuring contemporary artists Lerato Shadi and Robin Rhode in dialogue with Gerard Sekoto, Bessie Head, and Don Mattera
- Inspired by Don Mattera’s poem Protea…, exploring exile, resilience, and identity through visual art and literature
- Showcases works across painting, installation, photography, film, and newly commissioned murals
- Runs from 16 October 2025 to 15 November 2026 at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town
(Cape Town, Thursday, 18 September 2025): Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is proud to present A Protea Is Not a Flower, an exhibition featuring contemporary South African artists Lerato Shadi and Robin Rhode in dialogue with the lives and works of painter Gerard Sekoto, and writers Bessie Head and Don Mattera. Curated by Zeitz MOCAA’s Khanyi Mawhayi, the exhibition runs from 16 October 2025 to 15 November 2026.
A Protea Is Not a Flower is a multigenerational conversation that engages with the complexity of the exilic experience. Inspired by Mattera’s poem Protea…(1983), which interrogates colonialism, apartheid, and patriotism through the metaphor of South Africa’s national flower, the exhibition considers exile as both an external displacement and an internal form of isolation. Like the protea—a plant with a resilient root system capable of surviving under harsh conditions—the artists reflect on survival, belonging, and creativity across different geographies and histories.
The exhibition draws parallels between the exiles of Sekoto and Head abroad, and the internal confinement Mattera endured in South Africa. It also reflects on the choices made by Shadi and Rhode in establishing their artistic practices in Berlin, Germany. Through archival material, written correspondence, paintings, installations, photography, film, and newly commissioned murals, the exhibition examines exile as a spectrum of personal and political expression, and as a catalyst for connection, memory, and identity.
Sekoto’s Le Massacre de Sharpeville/Sharpeville Massacre (1960) is shown in conversation with Shadi’s Maropeng (2022), confronting the entanglement of history and the present. Rhode’s Twilight (2012/2013) pays homage to Mattera while resonating with Sekoto’s Sketch for Song of the Pick (n.d.). Both artists also present site-specific murals that transform the gallery walls into spaces that reflect migration, inclusion, home, and exile.
Curator Khanyi Mawhayi says: ‘This exhibition brings together artists and writers across time whose works reveal exile not just as displacement, but as a condition of creativity. In their resilience, they offer us new ways of thinking about belonging, community, and imagination.’
By staging a conceptual and formal dialogue across generations, A Protea Is Not a Flower reveals profound connections between these artists and writers—even in the absence of documented encounters—asking audiences to look Beyond the Gate (1946–47), beyond borders, and beyond inherited national identities.
A Protea Is Not A Flower forms part of Zeitz MOCAA’s ongoing series of in-depth, research-driven exhibitions that centre and contextualise the practices of significant artists from Africa and its diaspora, while engaging with pivotal themes in Pan-African history. Extending beyond the continent’s borders, this programme embraces enduring and emerging entanglements, positioning Africa within a global context, and the world within Africa’s.
As a groundbreaking institution dedicated to preserving and promoting contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, this exhibition reflects the museum’s vision to produce and present cutting-edge contemporary exhibitions, deepen art historical knowledge, amplify the careers of Africa’s most talented artists, strengthen education programmes, and ensure access for all.
Zeitz MOCAA’s exhibition and curatorial programming is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation and BMW South Africa.
//ends
Please find the media toolkit with media release, biographies, portraits, artwork images and image credits.
For media enquiries, contact:
Evaan Jason Ferreira, Communications Specialist, evaanjason.ferreira@zeitzmocaa.museum
Esther Henderson, Communications Manager, esther.henderson@zeitzmocaa.museum
Feel free to submit an interview request or visit our press room for the latest media releases & toolkits.
Issued by Zeitz MOCAA Communications.
About Zeitz MOCAA
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is a public not-for-profit institution that collects, preserves, researches and exhibits contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora; conceives and hosts international exhibitions; develops supporting educational, discursive and enrichment programmes; encourages intercultural understanding; and ensures access for all. The museum’s galleries feature rotating temporary exhibitions with dedicated space for the permanent collection. The institution also includes the BMW Centre for Art Education and The Atelier, a museum residency programme for artists living and working in Cape Town.
Zeitz MOCAA, situated at the Silo District, South Arm Road, V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, is open Monday through Sunday, 10 am – 6 pm (last entry at 5.30 pm). zeitzmocaa.museum
About the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the United States’ largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. mellon.org
About the BMW Group
With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. The BMW Group production network comprises over 30 production sites worldwide; the company has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.
In 2023, the BMW Group sold over 2.55 million passenger vehicles and more than 209,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year 2023 was € 17.1 billion on revenues amounting to € 155.5 billion. As of 31 December 2023, the BMW Group had a workforce of 154,950 employees.
The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company set the course for the future at an early stage and consistently makes sustainability and efficient resource management central to its strategic direction, from the supply chain through production to the end of the use phase of all products. www.bmwgroup.com