PT: Tell us about the Zeitz MOCAA Museum. How did this come about?
JZ: I fell in love with Africa when I first came here in ’89, and decided that, one day, I would make this place, this continent, somehow evolve for me. After a long search, I found a place that I still own today in Kenya. I developed a philosophy through the foundation that I set up about 10 years ago called the Long Run initiative. It believes in using business as a force for good—in the mix to sustain and support a conservation community culture. I felt I needed a place and a home s omewhere in Africa because I couldn’t quite understand why there was no major institution that w ould represent African artists in Africa. So I started collecting contemporary African art about 10 years ago, always with a goal to someday house it somewhere in Africa. One decade later, I have this museum that I opened last September.
PT: What’s the story you want to be made known through this museum?
JZ: I want to help create a platform for Africans who have a story to tell in terms of social, environmental, cultural, political, or personal messaging; this institution is about Africans writing their own history. Quite often, Africa has been defined f rom the outside and outsiders sort of define what Africa is. We felt that althoug h contemporary artists who live and work in Africa, or in the diaspora gets represented in other parts of the world [should be ‘heard’]. Every continent, every country, should have an institution that represents its own artists and their important message. This is about Africans telling their own story, defining their own history, and about others having a better understanding of them through their art, what is sues they have. I do believe in the transformative power of art, especially the way we’ve selected the art. It’s very meaningful and that’s really the idea behind this institution, in addition to being a strong educational platform.
PT: How do you assess the world’s interest in African art?
JZ: If you go by a 20-year perspective, it’s not so much [Africa’s cultural change]. Contemporary art was not something that was really at the forefront. But look at Asia today: it has numerous artists rising everywhere, every day. This same phenomenon we see in Africa. As the continent grows, becomes an economic power, and extends its reach in the world, you will see more becoming interested in its art. In fact, it has already started. In the last three years, there’s been quite a lot of interest in contemporary art. To think that this is the last continent where there wasn’t so much visibility for art. It doesn’t mean that art wasn’t present, it just had low visibility.
PT: How did you come to work with Thomas Heatherwick as the designer for the museum?
JZ: He saw the building [the iconic grain silo at the Waterfront] many years ago and asked why isn’t anybody doing anything with it? Then he was approached by the V&A Waterfront Holdings who told him that they really did not know what to do with it either. Around the same time, we [the Zeitz Foundation] were searching for a place [to build a museum]. We all met together and, as they say, the rest is history.
PT: There are some questions as to your being a non-African and how will this impact on African museum?
JZ: An African should have come and done it but no one did—so I did it. We’re living in a global world and we do what needs to be done. What’s important is I’m not doing the talking, I’m not curating the shows, I’m not defining what’s being shown, how it’s being presented. Who the artists are and so on and so forth. So in that perspective, I’m merely providing the platform. Ultimately, it’s Africans selecting, speaking, and defining how they want to be seen as. If I were the one curating the shows, it wouldn’t be good because it would be from an outsider’s viewpoint. But I am not. I am just giving the platform.