THE HISTORICAL RECORD

The living archive.

Art leaves a record. Return to the exhibitions, artists and ideas that continue to shape the conversation.

A GROWING COLLECTION

Browse by the original source publication date. Historical selections are reviewed and added over time; coverage is not exhaustive.

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488 reviewed stories

Institutional AnnouncementSouthern Africa

Rita Mawuena Benissan reimagined Asante symbols in One Must Be Seated

Zeitz MOCAA’s 2024 announcement of Rita Mawuena Benissan’s One Must Be Seated described an exhibition exploring Asante enstoolment through umbrellas, stools, textiles, sculpture, photography and film. Curated by Beata America, the presentation drew on archives and collaboration with Kumasi artisans. Its historical significance lies in connecting Ghanaian traditions of leadership with contemporary artistic practice while recognising the craftspeople who sustain those traditions.

Zeitz MOCAA23 Oct 2024

Institutional AnnouncementSouthern Africa

Zeitz MOCAA traced the grain silo’s transformation into a museum

Zeitz MOCAA’s September 2024 announcement described Silo Through the Century: Into the Contemporary as a movable exhibition about the building’s changing uses. Combining archival images, video and objects, it traced the grain silo from its 1924 industrial beginnings to its conversion into a contemporary-art museum. The project placed the institution’s architecture within Cape Town’s economic and cultural history, beyond the centenary celebration itself.

Zeitz MOCAA24 Sept 2024

OPENING THE JOURNAL

The living archive.

Rita Mawuena Benissan reimagined Asante symbols in One Must Be Seated

Zeitz MOCAA traced the grain silo’s transformation into a museum

The living archive.

Rita Mawuena Benissan reimagined Asante symbols in One Must Be Seated

Zeitz MOCAA traced the grain silo’s transformation into a museum

Nolan Oswald Dennis questioned systems of knowledge in UNDERSTUDIES

MADEYOULOOK brought land, sound and Indigenous knowledge to Venice

Kelli Morgan founded an archive for Detroit’s Black art histories

Points of Resonance connected African photographic practices in New York

MOCAD reconsidered Gallery 7’s legacy of Black abstraction

Tuan Andrew Nguyen connected Vietnamese, Senegalese and Moroccan histories

Esther Mahlangu’s retrospective placed community beside individual achievement

Georgina Maxim’s stitched works made repair deliberately provisional

Berni Searle’s On Site opened her artistic process to museum visitors

Lady Skollie’s GROOT GAT rebuilt stories around historical absence

Bamako’s 2024 photography biennial selected thirty artists

Zeitz MOCAA turned African stories into an illustrated children’s series

Igshaan Adams’s textile practice followed the traces of movement

An early Black family portrait entered public view in Baltimore

Zeitz MOCAA and UWC welcomed five fellows from across Africa in 2024

Casablanca Art School’s collective modernism revisited in Sharjah