Turning Towards the Sun

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.

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 and Evyn Banawoye. Its geographic scope spans what the late Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA Koyo Kouoh called the “wider Black geographies of the twenty-first century”. 

Inspired by the ideals of Pan-African solidarity and post-liberation worldmaking, the exhibition presents video installations that 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 genealogy of cultural institutions on the Continent and figures who have championed Africa as a generative site of knowledge production within the field of filmmaking.

The catalyst for this continental project and exhibition was Julie Mehretu’s nomination as the artist for the 20th BMW Art Car 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 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.

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 enduring and emerging entanglements, 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.

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.