Cape Town/Munich. As part of Julie Mehretu’s ongoing BMW Art Car project, the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) was launched in April 2025 by the internationally renowned painter in collaboration with Emmy-nominated film producer Mehret Mandefro and the BMW Group. The initiative brings together artists and filmmakers from across Africa and the diaspora to explore new forms of creation and cultural dialogue in workshops led by internationally renowned artists.
From January 27–31, 2026, AFMAC will host its final workshop in Cape Town, following successful sessions in Lagos, Tangier, Nairobi, and Dakar. For this closing edition, London-based The Otolith Group—founded in 2002 by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun—will lead the workshop. Known for their interdisciplinary approach spanning film, installation, and performance, their work investigates histories of science fiction and global cultural legacies. Through research-driven art, they aim to spark public dialogue and connect theory, practice, and exhibition. Titled African Cosmotechnics: Animation, Animism, Abstraction, Automotion, Automation, Aesthetics their workshop program brings artists, writers, theorists, animators, theatre-makers, and filmmakers together to approach animation not only as technique or as genre, but as a way of rethinking the relations between images, sounds, and voices. It is not intended as a technical workshop for producing animation but for rethinking what animation could, might, or should be.
AFMAC and its local partner in Cape Town, Chimurenga, offer a public screening of Infinity Minus Infinity with an ensuing art talk with The Otolith Group on January 31, 2026, at 7.30pm. The 2019 video work is an audiovisual performance combining dance, music, spoken word, and animation to reflect on how historical racism and colonialism continue to shape today’s social and environmental crises.
Chimurenga is a platform for African ideas and cultural production, founded by Ntone Edjabe in Cape Town in 2002. The aim of Chimurenga’s activities is not just to produce new knowledge, but to express the intensities of our world, to capture those forces, and to take action. Chimurenga publishes “Chimurenga Magazine”, the quarterly broadsheet “The Chronic”, and curates the Chimurenga Library—an evolving archive reimagining African knowledge systems.
Cape Town also hosts the project’s culmination: the exhibition “Scaling Intentions” at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, from December 11, 2026 to August 15, 2027. Each AFMAC lead artist will present a film inspired by the respective workshop, shown alongside Julie Mehretu’s BMW Art Car #20, a BMW M Hybrid V8 first unveiled at the Centre Pompidou in 2024. The films are intended as an anthology of contemporary African film and media art making.
AFMAC’s mission is to foster sustainable artistic networks and strengthen creative communities across Africa. Through the workshops, participants explore cultural heritage, identity, and experimentation using archival African film and media materials. They are given the opportunity to develop their own creative approaches for new forms of media art for the future.
“The magic of bringing people together starts with us. AFMAC creates forums for conversations in small, critical masses and surfaces resources to take the next steps. We build on the work of our local cultural partners: They already created a grounded cultural infrastructure, showing that art is not just a nice-to-have but a must-have. The talent and cultural energy emerging from these cities is electric – culture cannot be gated, it will always find a way to be heard,“ says Mehret Mandefro, co-founder of AFMAC.
“At BMW Group South Africa, we see our role as more than mobility, it’s about creating space for connection, conversation and shared progress,” says Thilosh Moodally, Director of Government Affairs and Communications at BMW Group South Africa. “Through initiatives such as AFMAC, we’re proud to support creative communities that amplify African voices, encourage creative freedom and open up meaningful cultural exchange. It’s part of how we show up beyond our products, with people and art at the centre of this project, we ensure that we build more than just cars, we build communities”.
Get deeper insights into AFMAC on the website www.afmac.institute, via Instagram at @a.f.m.a.c. or tune into Julie Mehretu’s interview on CNN African Voices.
The BMW Group’s Cultural Engagement, with exclusive updates and deeper insights into its global initiatives can be followed on Instagram at @BMWGroupCulture.
African Film and Media Arts Collective – Past and future stationsApril 2025: Lagos, Nigeria, in partnership with Angels & MuseLead artist: Coco Fusco
July 2025: Tangier, Morocco, in partnership with Cinematheque de TangerLead artist: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
October 2025: Nairobi, Kenya, in partnership with DocuboxLead artists: Jim Chuchu and Wanuri Kahiu
December 2025: Dakar, Senegal, in partnership with Fanta Sy and Raw Material CompanyLead artist: Mati Diop
January 2026: Cape Town, South Africa, in partnership with ChimurengaLead artist: The Otolith Group
11 December 2026 – 15 August 2027: Final exhibition at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa
Biographies of the founders and Cape Town lead artists
Julie Mehretu is a world-renowned American artist, born in Addis Ababa in 1970. Mehretu’s practice in painting, drawing and printmaking engages the viewer in a dynamic visual articulation of contemporary experience. Notable accolades include the MacArthur Award, the US Department of State Medal of Arts Award, and, in 2025, she was awarded the rank of Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. Her work has been exhibited widely at museums, biennials and galleries around the globe. Mehretu is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Design and the National Academy of Sciences in Ethiopia. She sits on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art, is a trustee and alumna of the American Academy in Berlin, a Global Council Member at Zeitz MOCAA, and is co-founder and board member of Denniston Hill. Mehretu lives and works in New York City.
Mehret Mandefro is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, and serial entrepreneur born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her body of work explores hidden truths and spans documentary and fiction, film and television, art and science. She co-founded the multi-media production company Truth Aid Media and founded the research enterprise Truth Aid Impact, A51 Pictures in Ethiopia, as well as the Realness Institute in South Africa. She was formerly the Executive Producer of Kana Television in Ethiopia and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.
The Otolith Group was founded in London in 2002 by curators and artists Anjalika Sagar, born 1968, and Kodwo Eshun, born 1967 both in London. The artist-led collective follows a research-based work that spans across moving images, audio, performance, and installations and engages with post-human discourses, building intergenerational and cross-cultural platforms.
Biographies of further lead artists
Jim Chuchu is a singer, songwriter, music producer, director, photographer, and visual artist. He helped establish the Nest Collective, a multidisciplinary art space and artists’ collective in Nairobi. His first short film “Homecoming” was featured at various film festivals from Durban to Locarno. Chuchu’s photography series “Pagans” was highlighted at Dak’Art 2014, the 11th edition of Africa’s longest running biennial of contemporary art.
Robin Coste Lewis, born in 1964 in Compton, California, is the author of “Voyage of the Sable Venus” (2015), which won the National Book Award for Poetry. The former poet laureate of Los Angeles, Lewis holds a PhD in Poetry and Visual Studies from the University of Southern California, an MFA in poetry from New York University, an MTS in Sanskrit and comparative religious literature from the Divinity School at Harvard University, and a BA from Hampshire College in post-colonial literature and creative writing. Her work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Transition, and The Massachusetts Review. Lewis has taught at Hampshire College, Hunter College, Wheaton College, and the NYU Low-Residency MFA in Paris. She is currently writer in residence at the University of Southern California.
Mati Diop is a French-Senegalese filmmaker born in Paris in 1982. With her first feature film, “Atlantics“ (2019), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival followed by “Dahomey“ (2024) awarded by The Golden Bear of Berlinale, (both shortlisted at the Oscars), she has established herself as one of the leading figures of international auteur cinema and a new wave in African and diasporic cinema.
Coco Fusco born in 1960 in New York City is a video and performance artist. With her multidisciplinary practice, Fusco explores the ways that intercultural dynamics affect the construction of the self and ideas about cultural otherness. Her work is in the collections of major museums worldwide and she received numerous awards.
Wanuri Kahiu is an award-winning filmmaker, speaker, and science fiction writer. Her film, “Rafiki,“ was the first Kenyan film to screen at Cannes, earning global recognition. Named one of TIME’s 100 Next in 2019, she is a cultural leader for the World Economic Forum and an advocate for freedom of expression. Through AFROBUBBLEGUM, Kahiu champions fun, fierce and frivolous African art. She directed “Washington Black” for Hulu/20th Century Fox, Netflix’s “Look Both Ways,” and is set to direct Disney’s “Once on This Island”.
Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, born in 1974, is an Ethiopian filmmaker and co-founder of A51 Pictures. He is notable as the director of the critically acclaimed films “Difret” (winner of Sundance and Berlinale Panorama Audience Awards) and “Sweetness in the Belly”. Apart from cinema, he co-founded and served as the Head of Original Content for Kana Television, the largest free-to-air, private satellite entertainment TV channel in Ethiopia.