The Museum of Contemporary Art Africa announces that he is the groundbreaking Swiss Cam-style curator Koyo Kouoh, who will be the first African woman to lead the Venice Biennale.

"The trustee of Zeitz Mocaa announced on Saturday, May 10, 2025 that the trustee of our beloved executive director and chief curator Koyo Kouoh's sudden death," the museum said in a statement Monday.

Kouoh, 57, has been appointed as the 61st edition of the Biennale Arte, which will be held in Venice from April to November 2026.

Kouoh was born in Doula, Cameroon in 1967, but through her teenage and 20-year-old Zurich education, he has served as executive director of Mocaa, Cape Town, South Africa since 2019. It owns the largest contemporary artwork on the continent.

She was previously the founding artistic director of the Art Center Raw Materials Company in Dakar, Senegal, and had a great influence on her. "This is where I'm specialized, I'm really a curator and an exhibition maker," she told the Financial Times recently. "Dakar makes me who I am today."

As the curator of the Biennale, she will hold the title and theme of the exhibition in Venice within a week on May 20.

Management of the Venice Biennale said in a statement that they were “deeply sad and frustrated to learn about the sudden and inappropriate death of Koyo Kouoh”.

They said Kouoh "has passionate, intellectual and visionary in the concept and development of the 2026 Biennale".

"Her death left a huge gap in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators and scholars who have the honor of understanding and appreciation of her extraordinary human and intellectual commitments," the statement added.

The Biennale confirmed that "a press conference may be held on May 20", which will also make a living from the headquarters.

Zeitz Mocaa said it has closed the door and has suspended all programming until further notice.

Kouoh moved to Switzerland at the age of 13 and studied business administration and banking before starting his literary career. In 1994, she co-edited Töchter Afrikas, an anthology of writing about African women’s ancestry.

According to the New York Times, she is considered a transformational leader at Zeitz Mocaa, where she established a "clear pan-African world-class program."

In her last interview, Kouoh discussed her views on mortality. "I do believe in life after death because I come from the ancestral black education that we believe in parallel life and reality," she said. "There is no 'after death', 'before death or 'in life'. It doesn't matter. I believe in vitality - life or death - and the power of the universe.