How do artists address political and social concerns that challenge the world around them in ways that don’t simply demonstrate the issues but actively engage with them? Curator Koyo Kouoh told us why she worked with artists who have “created their own universes” and have embedded in their practices thinking systems that are political.
Koyo Kouoh (1967-2025) was the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in South Africa and the first African woman appointed to curate the Venice Biennale, to be held in 2026. She was also the founding artistic director of RAW Material Company, a center for art, knowledge, and society in Dakar, Senegal. In 2017, as part of its Center-supported I is for Institute project, the Institute of Contemporary Art presented a conversation with Kouoh on RAW’s rigorous and wide-ranging approach to curatorial projects, education initiatives, and residencies.
