“Turning Towards the Sun” at Zeitz MOCAA: AFMAC exhibition marks the culmination of Julie Mehretu's BMW Art Car project following a series of five inter-continental workshops.
Munich/Cape Town. Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) and BMW present “Turning Towards the Sun” an exhibition bringing together six artists and filmmakers to explore moving image and collective learning practices on the Continent: Ethiopian director Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, Kenyan multidisciplinary artist Jim Chuchu, Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, African-American poet Robin Coste Lewis, and British interdisciplinary artist collective The Otolith Group. The exhibition will be on view from 11 December 2026 to 15 August 2027 on Level 4 of the Museum.
The catalyst for this continental project and exhibition was Julie Mehretu’s nomination as the artist for the BMW Art Car #20 that will be on display in Zeitz MOCAA’s Atrium Bowl for the duration of the exhibition. Inspired by Arundhati Roy’s 2020 reflection that “the pandemic is a portal”, Mehretu approached this commission as a way of constructing portals into new worlds shaped by Pan-African perspectives and brought to life by the histories and futures of Pan-African cinema.Together with filmmaker Mehret Mandefro and late Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA Koyo Kouoh, Mehretu began constructing these gateways through the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) and a series of five inter-continental workshops – held in Lagos, Nigeria; Tangier, Morocco; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; and Cape Town, South Africa – led by artists, including several participating in the exhibition.
Julie Mehretu reflects: “For me, the idea of a portal is about opening up possibilities – creating space to imagine beyond the worlds we have inherited. African cinema holds an extraordinary history of artists using the moving image to document and reimagine their realities. Through AFMAC, we create opportunities for artists to encounter one another, and to explore what could emerge when these histories and perspectives come into conversation.”
Peter van Binsbergen, Chairman and CEO of BMW South Africa: “For more than 50 years, BMW has been committed to culture, with the BMW Art Cars at the heart of this engagement. ‘Turning Towards the Sun’ demonstrates the catalytic power of artistic freedom: what began with Julie Mehretu’s vision for her BMW Art Car #20 has evolved into a wider platform for artistic exchange and collaboration across the African continent. Cultural engagement also has a strong tradition for BMW in South Africa, not least through our partnership with Zeitz MOCAA since the museum’s founding.”
Inspired by the ideals of Pan-African solidarity and post-liberation visions, the exhibition presents video installations which look at cultural manifestations of women's rage; the complexities of Black queer masculinities on the Continent; the youth’s experiences of complicated political moments; as well as African cosmo-technics and the expanded field of animation through the literature of Nigerian author Amos Tutuola. The exhibition also includes a history of cultural institutions on the Continent and figures who have championed Africa as a generative site of knowledge production within the field of filmmaking.
Zeitz MOCAA Assistant Curator Khanyi Mawhayi remarks: “The exhibition asks, ‘How do we build sustainable Pan-African social and pedagogical infrastructures between artists and institutions in Africa?’ ‘Turning Towards the Sun’ is an invitation to think expansively about cinema and its related pedagogies; to trace networks of solidarity across Africa and embrace the generosity that emerges when we imagine people as the infrastructure that sustains film and cinema on the Continent.”
The title of the exhibition takes its cue from a quote by Ousmane Sembène in the 1983 documentary Twenty Years of African Cinema (Caméra d’Afrique) by Tunisian filmmaker Ferid Boughedir. When questioned on Europe’s reading of his films, Sembène insists he does not concern himself with European understandings of his films, asserting, “Why should I be like a sunflower turning towards the sun? I, myself, am the sun.” This exhibition recontextualises his statement to propose that attention to filmmaking from Africa and its diaspora represents a turning towards the sun. In this context, the sun is the artistic knowledge and cultural production emerging from the African continent and its global diaspora, namely, the Black geographies that exist and inhabit multiple regions of the world.
“Turning Towards the Sun” forms part of Zeitz MOCAA’s ongoing series of in-depth, research-driven exhibitions that centre and contextualise the practices of significant artists from Africa and its diaspora, while engaging with pivotal themes in Pan-African history. Extending beyond the Continent’s borders, this programme embraces historic and new connections, positioning Africa in a global context and the world within Africa. The exhibition is in partnership with BMW and is part of the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) project.
“Turning Towards the Sun” is curated by Zeitz MOCAA Assistant Curator Khanyi Mawhayi, with support from Dr Phokeng Setai and Dr Greer Valley, and assistance from Angela Muritu, Inshaaf Jamodien, Evyn Banawoye and Reem Aljeally. Its geographic scope spans what Koyo Kouoh called the “wider Black geographies of the twenty-first century”.
As a Pan-African and pan-diasporic institution, Zeitz MOCAA remains committed to presenting and preserving contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, advancing art historical knowledge, supporting artists and strengthening its education programmes, while ensuring access for all.
Zeitz MOCAA’s curatorial and exhibition programming is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation and BMW South Africa.
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