Ghanaian-American artist Rita Mawuena Benissan, has a solo exhibition, One Must Be Seated, opening at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) on 13 November 2024. Deeply rooted within her Ghanaian culture, Benissan’s practice has particular focus on the reimagining of the royal umbrella and stool, symbols of Akan chieftaincy.
- The exhibition explores the enstoolment of a prospective chief, akin to coronation; a call to take their rightful seat in the stool that has been chosen for them.
“The exhibition layout simulates the enstoolment tradition with each successive gallery symbolising a stage in the process,” explains Beata America, the curator of the exhibition, and Assistant Curator at Zeitz MOCAA. Prompted by the new film, One Must Be Seated (2024), from which the exhibition takes its title, you are invited to be nominated and confronted by the ancestors. Walking through, one passes the palace at dusk, depicted in an intricately woven tapestry, We Process at Sunrise (2024); receives a powerful affirmation of growth and renewal in the green shades of We Give Power to You (2024), another umbrella work; and is ultimately led to the final golden throne. America adds: “It will embrace its chosen, sealing the bond between leader and legacy. When the time comes, will you be open to receive the call?”
Benissan was born in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire in 1995 to Ghanaian parents. Her journey led her to the United States as a baby, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Apparel and Textile Design from Michigan State University in 2017, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in photography and an African Studies Program Certificate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021. Rita’s works have been acquired by private and institutional collections, including Foundation H, The Dean Collection, Fundacion Yannick Y Ben, Paola Pavirani Golinelli, Nicolas Berggruen, Amoako Boafo, and many others.
One Must Be Seated forms part of an ongoing series of in-depth, research-based solo exhibitions by Zeitz MOCAA that bring into focus and contextualise the practices of important artists from Africa and the Diaspora, and those whose work focuses on seminal topics in the African present.
Zeitz MOCAA’s exhibition and curatorial programming is generously supported by Gucci, the Mellon Foundation, and BMW South Africa.
The GOOD NEWS is that the opening of One Must Be Seated on Wednesday, 13 November from 6 – 8pm is FREE and open to the public! See you there!!
WHAT: Rita Mawuena Benissan – One Must Be Seated
WHERE: Zeitz MOCAA, Level 3, Silo Side, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: opens Wednesday, 13 November 2024 and runs until 5 October 2025
INFO: E communications@zeitzmocaa.museum | VISIT
PHOTO: Still from One Must Be Seated, 2024. Film. Image the artist and Gallery 1957.
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