FEED: 2023 Zeitz MOCAA & University of the Western Cape Museum Fellowship Symposium, PART 2

To reflect on and celebrate the completion of the 2023 Zeitz MOCAA & University of the Western Cape (UWC) Museum Fellowship Programme, the museum welcomed members of the public to 𝙁𝙀𝙀𝘿, an interactive presentation with curated eats alongside the cohorts’ research on Saturday, 20 January 2024.

The day's culminating programme is a continuation of our collective curatorial and museum-oriented reflections. 𝙁𝙀𝙀𝘿 also incorporated methods and theoretical ingredients from the recently opened 𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 permanent collection exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA.

𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 invites you to stay with seventeen artists from Zeitz MOCAA’s permanent collection. A word shared among many Nguni languages in southern Africa, 𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 is part of a call and response between people parting ways – 𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘢 𝘬𝘢𝘩𝘭𝘦, a well-wishing of safe travels to those who are departing and 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢 𝘬𝘢𝘩𝘭𝘦, welcoming those who are staying behind to ‘stay well.’ A collaborative process between the 2023 Museum Fellows Pauline Buhlebenkosi (Buhle) Ndhlovu; Mona Eshraghi Hakimi; Evaan Jason Ferreira; Bulelwa Lomusa Kunene; Ana Raquel de Jesus Machava and Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, Storm Janse van Rensburg, 𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 questions the limits and potentials of the museum.

𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 invites visitors of Zeitz MOCAA to stay with us to re-imagine the museum as a new embodied space. At the heart of 𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 is a set of questions. What is a museum and who is it for? What are the inheritances of the museum and how do we make it anew? What are the ‘ways of seeing’ that are encouraged by a museum? How do we wish to see art, ourselves, and each other in a museum?

𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 invites you as the audience to explore the limits and possibilities of the museum and to take part in this reflection and questioning. We welcome you to sit with us and with your senses – stay and be within your own bodies. 𝙎𝘼𝙇𝘼 encourages you to linger, to experience things with slowness. It offers multiple entry points for you to explore, to question and to challenge. You are also invited to map the ways you occupy the museum. This invitation is extended through our exhibition guide and the process of map-making that asks you to engage playfully and critically with the relationships between meanings of works and images. Our curatorial process was consultative. It started with a series of internal conversations about how our institutional identity is shaped by our collection and how we can re-connect with the artwork we hold as well as with our varied audience. We interrogated the intentionality of a collection exhibition, and to what extent it could include institutional critique, and how it can act in ways to ‘repair’ and offer alternative spaces for ‘being.’

𝘡𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘻 𝘔𝘖𝘊𝘈𝘈’𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭, 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘎𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘪 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘯 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘡𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘻 𝘔𝘖𝘊𝘈𝘈 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘦 (𝘜𝘞𝘊) 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘍𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘒𝘖 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.