Media Release
Zeitz MOCAA brings together the six Koyo Kouoh Atelier artists in
Were It Not for Shadows …
An homage to artistic process and the quiet spaces of inquiry in which ideas take shape
(Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, 13 October 2026): Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) presents Were It Not for Shadows …, a group exhibition centring the distinctive practices of six Cape Town-based artists who completed residencies at the Museum as part of the Koyo Kouoh Atelier between 2019 and 2025: Kemang Wa Lehulere, Laying Bare (2019); Haroon Gunn-Salie, Line in the Sand (2020); Thania Petersen, KASSARAM (2021); Igshaan Adams, ‘Not Working; (Working Title)’ (2022); Unathi Mkonto, ‘TO LET’ (2023); and Berni Searle, On Site (2024). The exhibition will be on view from Thursday, 12 November 2026 to Sunday, 29 August 2027 on Level 3 of the Museum.
Were It Not for Shadows … is curated by Zeitz MOCAA Assistant Curator Dr Phokeng Setai, with assistance from fellows of the Zeitz MOCAA & University of the Western Cape (UWC) Fellowship Programme Bulelwa Kunene and Reem Aljeally. The exhibition brings together installations, tapestries, sculptures and photographic series that were prompted by, developed during, or emerged from the artists’ time in the Atelier. Rather than proposing definitive readings or conclusions, the exhibition offers a set of conceptual orientations through which the works might be encountered. Site-specific commissions and interventions into the Museum’s architecture and institutional context provide one point of entry, while engagements with embodied histories, socio-political aftermaths and the spiritual practices of South Africa’s multicultural landscape provide another. While authorial intent remains central to the works, these aesthetic and philosophical lenses allow interpretation to remain open, relational and shaped by context.
Dr Phokeng Setai remarked: ‘Were It Not for Shadows … pays homage to artistic process and to the quiet spaces of inquiry in which ideas are conceived, nurtured and transformed. It foregrounds work that has materialised through sustained exploration, away from the spectacle of public view—in the shadows. The title offers a reflection on the unseen labour of experimentation, the process of ideation, and the countless hours artists spend in the studio before their work enters the more visible realm of exhibition-making. The exhibition brings the practices of the six artists into relation, allowing multiple meanings and connections to emerge.’
The title of the exhibition is drawn from a line in author Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s 1933 essay on traditional Japanese aesthetics, In Praise of Shadows. Widely regarded as a meditation on Japanese aesthetic philosophy, the text considers the beauty of shadow, subtlety and ambiguity. Reflecting on the interiors of traditional Japanese homes, Tanizaki contrasts these qualities with the intense illumination and clarity typically associated with Western modernity, writing, ‘Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.’
Through this formulation, Tanizaki proposes that beauty resides not in perfection, but in nuance, transience and restraint. Central to the text is a deliberate tension between absence and presence, modernity and tradition, and the lingering traces of the old world and the brashness of the new. In thinking with Tanizaki, the exhibition reflects on the passage of time and the ways in which change can expand our understanding of the world around us.
Extending this interest in ambiguity and the refusal of fixed or resolved readings, the exhibition introduces a second conceptual framework: the Crystallist Manifesto. Written by members of the Crystallist School in Khartoum, Sudan, the Crystallist Manifesto reflects on time, knowledge, space, language, beauty and the nature of artistic materials. Invoking the image of the crystal—its multiple facets and its capacity to refract and reflect light—the school rejects essentialist understandings of the world. Art, within this framework, is a crystallisation of plurality: no single point of view can contain the totality of truth. This approach reinforces the exhibition’s openness to multiple meanings and connections.
Were It Not for Shadows … forms part of Zeitz MOCAA’s ongoing series of in-depth, research-driven exhibitions that centre and contextualise the practices of artists from Africa and its diaspora, while engaging with Pan-African histories. The programme traces established and emerging artistic, socio-political and cultural entanglements to position Africa within a global context, and the world within the African context.
As a Pan-African and Pan-diasporic institution, Zeitz MOCAA remains committed to presenting and preserving contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, advancing art historical knowledge, supporting artists and strengthening its education programmes, while ensuring access for all.
Zeitz MOCAA’s curatorial and exhibition programming is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation and BMW South Africa.
//Ends
Issued by Zeitz MOCAA Communications.
MEDIA TOOLKITPlease find the media toolkit with the media release, and where we will continue to add additional information, including biographies, portraits, artwork imagery and image credits.
For media enquiries, contact:
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.
About Zeitz MOCAA
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is a groundbreaking 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 Koyo Kouoh 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 to 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 BMW Group Culture
Driven by Culture. Culture is knowledge, a sanctuary of beauty and depth, of meaning and peace. An inspiring escape. Tranquil at best, even unsettling sometimes. As a corporate citizen, the BMW Group takes social responsibility seriously, as part of which it has been involved in hundreds of cultural initiatives worldwide for over half a century, in the fields of contemporary art, music and film as well as in design. As a long-term partner, creative freedom is key – and as essential for groundbreaking works as it is for major innovations within a business enterprise like ours.
Further information: www.bmwgroup.com/culture and www.bmwgroup.com/overview
Instagram: @BMWGroupCulture
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bmwgroupculture
#BMWGroupCulture
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 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 2025, the BMW Group sold 2.46 million passenger vehicles and more than 202,500 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year 2025 was € 10.2 billion on revenues amounting to € 133,5 billion. As of 31 December 2025, the BMW Group had a workforce of 154,540 employees.
The economic success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. Sustainability is a key element of the BMW Group’s corporate strategy and covers all products – from the supply chain through production to the end of their useful life.