Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev Remembers Koyo Kouoh: A Friendship of Grace and Light

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, former artistic director of dOCUMENTA (13), pens a personal tribute to Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian-born curator and director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town, who died suddenly in May 2025. Christov-Bakargiev recounts their friendship, which began during the preparations for dOCUMENTA (13) in 2009, where Kouoh served as a curatorial agent. She regrets not heeding Kouoh's recommendation to include artist Otobong Nkanga in that exhibition. The two shared a bond over Nkanga, whom Christov-Bakargiev later honored with a solo show at Castello di Rivoli. They met again in Dallas in April 2025 for the Nasher Sculpture Center's award ceremony honoring Nkanga. Kouoh had recently recovered from cancer but lost her sister to the same disease in May 2024. Christov-Bakargiev reveals she nominated Kouoh for the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence at Bard College and later proposed her as a candidate for the artistic direction of documenta 16, though the selection committee dissolved. She believes this preparation led to Kouoh's appointment as curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale by President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. Christov-Bakargiev learned of Kouoh's death on May 10, 2025, upon landing in Berlin, and visited the Bode Museum to see Paul Klee's "Angelus Novus," which she connected to the loss. She concludes by reflecting on Kouoh's grace and light, and her interest in Sufism.