winzir Koyo Kouoh Is Named 1st African Woman to Curate Venice Biennale

Koyo Kouoh, one of Africa’s pre-eminent curators, will oversee the 61st edition of the Venice Biennalewinzir, the organizers of the world’s longest-running contemporary art exhibition announced on Tuesday.

Kouoh, who was born in Cameroon, is currently the chief curator and executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, known as Zeitz MOCAA. She will be the first African woman to curate the Biennale.

In a telephone interview from Miami, where she is attending the Art Basel fair, Kouoh, 56, said she was “ecstatic” about the appointment.

She wants to create a show that “really speaks to our times,” she said, “and particularly speaks to where we want to go.” Although she already had “multiple ideas” about what the exhibition could look like, Kouoh said she was an “artist-centered curator” who would be guided by conversations with the show’s exhibitors.

“The artists will define where we go,” she said.

First held in 1895,fhm63 the Biennale is one of the art world’s most important events. It includes a large-scale group show, organized by the curator, and dozens of national pavilions, which participating countries stage independently.

This year’s edition, whose main exhibition was overseen by the Brazilian museum director Adriano Pedrosa, attracted almost 700,000 visitors before it closed last month. But Pedrosa’s show, which drew attention to overlooked queer and Indigenous artists, received mixed reviews.

They engaged in gerrymandering that ensured the party a near-lock on the state legislature and lopsided control of the state’s House delegation in Congress. They paved the way for a conservative state Supreme Court that upheld a strict voter ID law. And after gaining a veto-proof majority last year, they banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Authorities had expressed confidence on Wednesday, when the body was discovered, that it had belonged to the suspect, but Friday’s confirmation officially brought closure to the case. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, the authorities said.

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