Taylored Trips – Places of Interest – Zeitz MOCAA MuseumA short while ago I posted a story on the V & A Waterfront in the Cape Town harbour where I featured the new Silo Hotel. In that story I mentioned that an art museum was going to open in the old silo section of the silo building on 22nd

September. Well, they did it and the Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa) was opened on Friday 22nd

September as promised. We went to have a look on Saturday 23rd to see what all the hype was about.

We got there bright and early, not knowing what to expect and or even when it opened. As it turned out we had to wait about an hour for the

doors to open at 10am but that put us very near the front of the queue.They have a membership option for regular visitors and membership works like this;Membership Tiers:Annual

R250 per annum with a whole lot of benefitsBronze

R1 250 per annum with the same

benefits as Annual plus a few moreSilver

R5 000 per annum with the same benefits as Bronze plus a few extrasGold

R10 000 per annum with the same benefits as Silver plus a whole lot of extras This being the Grand Opening Weekend, entry for South

Africans was free.On Wednesdays, entry for South Africans and Africans citizens is free between 10am and 1pm.Daily admission is R180 for adults and under 18’s are always free. The picture below shows the queue snaking back into the sunlight before the 10am opening time.

That’s how much interest this museum has stirred up on only its second day.

At 10 o’clock sharp the doors opened and for the first time we were privy to a “truly immersive experie

nce within the stimulating and unexpected world of contemporary art from Africa, its Diaspora and beyond, with cutting-edge art and monumental architecture”, as they put it. For me, the cutting-edge contemporary art was OK to look at, sometimes interesting, sometimes creative, sometimes dull

and sometimes explosive but the architecture was way beyond monumental. The vision the designers and creators must have had to evolve the old silos, the tallest building in Sub-Saharan Africa when it was built in 1940 and turned our landmark eye-sore into a sculptured masterpiece of extraord

inary masonry is truly amazing.

Your first view as you enter the BMW Atrium is this picture below. A stunning, mind-blowing example some-one thinking outside the box.

Unfortunately, as beautiful as the centre-stage dragon is, it detracts from the overall spectacle of the imaginative architectural display beyond it.

To me it looks like someone has taken an oversized woodwork shaver and shaped the silos with it.

BMW Atrium

We went up by lift to the 6th

floor and worked our way down by the spiral staircase as opposed to what I think should

be the other way around. It all flows either way anyway.On the 6th floor, which is the top of the museum section, there is a coffee shop/food court and an open-air terrace where you look up at the hotel. The hotel starts on the 6th floor and goes up to the top terrace which is the special access 11th

floor

garden, bar, restaurant and pool.

Coffee shop Silo Hotel

Each floor has a maze of galleries leading you around from one

gallery to the next.

Then there are stairs and views.

And more art.

Down in the baseme

nt there’s more art, of a different kind.

And before you know it, you are out in the sunlight again and the magical

magnetic Waterfront is all yours beckoning you to stay just a little bit longer.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, I suggest you get

yourself down there.Until next time, “Keep on Tripping!”