A season of worldmaking and imagining otherwise at Zeitz MOCAA
Zeitz MOCAA is delighted to announce its upcoming 2026–2027 exhibition season featuring IMPRINT, an artist-led studio residency convening Cape Town publishing collectives; and Turning Towards the Sun, a multimedia exhibition featuring newly commissioned films by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, Mati Diop, Jim Chuchu, Wanuri Kahiu, and The Otolith Group, developed through the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) led by Julie Mehretu and Mehret Mandefro. Together, they foreground experimentation and critical discourse that promote new forms of public engagement across Africa and its diaspora.
IMPRINT, co-curated by Nathalie Viruly, and Dr Greer Valley, and supported by Bulelwa Kunene, Angela Muritu and Emme Pretorius, will be on view from 1 October 2026 to 28 March 2028 on Level 2 Elevator Side. The project is an artist-led studio residency that hosts Cape Town publishing collectives in Zeitz MOCAA’s Koyo Kouoh Atelier. The residency positions publishing not as a supplementary outcome of artistic practice, but as its central condition and method. Convening the collectives (B)and Wi(d)th, Medupi Publishing, and Creative Knowledge Resources, the Atelier unfolds a series of working spaces where research, production, and circulation are made tangible, expanding publishing beyond the book to include sound, performance, ephemera, and transmission. The residencies, lasting between three to six months, are extended through an extensive and experimental public programme developed in collaboration with the 2026 University of Western Cape and Zeitz MOCAA Fellows Drawing on these propositions and histories of self-publishing as tools for organising, dissent, and the shaping of subcultures, the Atelier therefore becomes a site of continuous addition and revision, where ideas remain in flux and permeable to its readership. Visitors encounter publishing as a medium that insists on its publicness, embraces contingency, and foregrounds the social and political forms found within. This exhibition is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation.
Turning Towards the Sun, curated by Khanyi Mawhayi supported by Dr Phokeng Setai and Dr Greer Valley and assisted by Angela Muritu, Inshaaf Jamodien and Evyn Banawoye, will be on view from 10 December 2026 to 15 August 2027 on Level 4. This multimedia exhibition presents film and media arts from Africa and its diaspora and is inspired by the ideals of Pan-African solidarities. It brings together five artists and filmmakers to explore moving image-making and collective practice on the continent and what Koyo Kouoh called the wider Black geographies of the 21st century. Brought together through the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) and led by Julie Mehretu and Mehret Mandefro, the exhibition presents five commissioned films by Ethiopian director Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, Kenyan multidisciplinary artist Jim Chuchu, Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, and The Otolith Group, an interdisciplinary artist collective based in London. This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) and BMW.
As a groundbreaking institution dedicated to promoting and preserving contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, this not-to-be-missed exhibition season reflects Zeitz MOCAA’s commitment to producing and presenting cutting-edge contemporary exhibitions and art historical knowledge, enhancing the careers of Africa’s most talented artists in the 21st century and beyond, strengthening its education programmes, and ensuring access for all.
Zeitz MOCAA’s exhibition and curatorial programming is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation and BMW South Africa.
