MOCAA – Museum of Contemporary ArtAfrika in Cape Town
Built nearly a century ago, the Cape Town Grain Silo was the tallest African building in the southern hemisphere: a grading tower 57 m tall and a lower cylinder block of 6 × 7 silos [Ø = 6 m, h = 27 m]. Seventy years later in the 1990s it retired, along with apartheid, not long after the V&A Waterfront mixed-use development was installed to become one of the continent’s prime tourist destinations. The idea to transform this national monument into an art museum was born in 2006; the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) opened this September. The largest museum of its kind, it promotes African art on the global stage. 6,000 m² are dedicated the display of 21st century African Art and the empowerment of its artists. While the facade of the cylinder blocks remains largely unaltered, the grading tower’s upper five-floor concrete skeleton was opened by protruding windows to accommodate 28 luxury ho-tel rooms. Prominently seen from Cape Town, rising to the sky, it is a compelling presence in the cityscape. Entering the atrium feels like stepping into an enormous cave.
