Koyo Kouoh, one of many world artwork world’s most outstanding figures, who had been slated to turn out to be the primary African girl to curate the Venice Biennale, died on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland. She was 57.
Her demise, in a hospital was announced by the biennale’s organizers. Her husband, Philippe Mall, stated the trigger was most cancers, which was identified only recently.
The biennale stated that Ms. Kouoh’s “sudden and premature” demise got here simply days earlier than she was scheduled to announce the title and theme of subsequent yr’s occasion. The assertion added that her demise “leaves an immense void on the planet of latest artwork.”
The Venice Biennale is arguably the artwork world’s most essential occasion. Staged each two years since 1895, it all the time features a large-scale group present, organized by the curator, alongside dozens of nationwide pavilions, organized independently.
A spokeswoman for the biennale didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon what Ms. Kouoh’s demise would imply for subsequent yr’s exhibition, which is scheduled to run from Might 9 via Nov. 22.
Because the curator and govt director of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape City, one among Africa’s largest modern artwork museums, Ms. Kouoh constructed a world repute as a torchbearer for artists of colour from Africa and elsewhere, though her pursuits have been world in attain. “I’m a global curator,” she stated final December in an interview with The New York Times.
