Marie-Cécile Zinsou (born 1982) is a French-

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

ese art historian and entrepreneur, She is president of the Fondation Zinsou, founded in 2005 in Cotonou, Republic of Benin,Pierre Cochez
"Marie-Cécile Zinsou, une jeune mécène en Afrique"
''La Croix'', 1 October 2010 (in French). which promotes contemporary art in Africa and leads cultural, educational and social initiatives. In 2014, she opened the first museum of contemporary art in Benin."Marie-Cécile Zinsou: she opened the first museum of contemporary art in Benin!"
''Africa Top Success'', 13 February 2014.

Early life and education

Zinsou Art Center in Ouidah Benin in Jan 2018

Marie-Cécile Zinsou was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, in 1982 and grew up in France and England."Marie-Cécile Zinsou"
at Leaders-Afrique.com (in French). She comes from a family of Beninese politicians and intellectuals and has dual French and Beninese nationality. Her father is

Lionel Zinsou Lionel Zinsou (born 23 October 1953) is a French–Beninese economist and investment banker who was Prime Minister of Benin from 2015 to 2016. Since June 2017, he has been the president of Terra Nova, a centre-left French think tank. Early ...

, an economist, who after years working in France returned to Benin, where he became Prime Minister from June 2015 to April 2016, being beaten in the second round as presidential candidate in the 2016 election. She is also the grand-niece of

Émile Derlin Zinsou Émile Derlin Zinsou (23 March 1918 – 28 July 2016) was a Beninese politician and physician who was the List of heads of state of Benin, President of Dahomey (now Benin) from 17 July 1968 until 10 December 1969, supported by the military regim ...

, former president of

Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in ...

(now Benin), and of the prominent Beninese cardinal

Bernardin Gantin Bernardin Gantin (8 May 1922 – 13 May 2008) was a Beninese Catholic prelate who held senior positions in the Roman Curia for twenty years and the highest position in the College of Cardinals for nine years. His prominence in the hierarchy o ...

. Zinsou studied partly at L'Ecole Alsacienne in

, and did further studies in the history of art at the

American University of Paris The American University of Paris (AUP) is a private university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe, and the first to be established in France. The university ...

.Nicolas Michel
"Collectionneurs – Bénin: Lionel Zinsou, jamais sans mes filles"
''Jeune Afrique'', 9 November 2012 (in French).

Career

In 2003, Zinsou worked at

SOS Children's Villages SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit international development organization headquartered in Innsbruck, Austria. The organization provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to families facing difficultie ...

Abomey-Calavi Abomey-Calavi is a city, Arrondissements of Benin, arrondissement, and Communes of Benin, commune located in the Atlantique Department of Benin. It is now essentially a suburb of Cotonou and at its closest it begins approximately 18 km from ...

, Benin, an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n non-governmental organization. In 2005, she launched CSEB, a business services company in Benin, and in June that same year with funding from her family was involved with setting up and running the Fondation Zinsou, based in

Cotonou Cotonou (; ) is the largest city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area. The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The city lies ...

, as an art centre with on-site or travelling exhibitions, publishing books, and also providing libraries and training. In 2013, Zinsou opened the Museum of Contemporary Art in

Ouidah Ouidah (English: ; French: ) or Whydah (; ''Ouidah'', ''Juida'', and ''Juda'' by the French; ''Ajudá'' by the Portuguese; and ''Fida'' by the Dutch), and known locally as Glexwe, formerly the chief port of the Kingdom of Whydah, is a city on t ...

, the first museum of contemporary art in Benin. She has said: "The Fondation Zinsou was created to make a space for dialogue between artists and the public. I was working with children and I wanted them to find out about their culture and try to give them an idea of the time we’re living in. Of course, art is the best way to do that. In the end, we thought we couldn’t just focus on contemporary art and so have been working on heritage projects and the heritage building that hosts the museum." She was one of the first people to be featured on IRAWO, a social media platform created by Beninese entrepreneur

Mylène Flicka Mylène Flicka (born Marie-Madeleine Fifamè Akrota; 22 July 1996) is a Beninese blogger, activist and social media entrepreneur. Biography Marie-Madeleine Fifamè Akrota was born on 22 July 1996. She adopted the pseudonym Mylène Flicka when ...

to inspire the next generation of West African young people.

Other activities

In 2020, Zinsou was a member of the jury that selected Kapwani Kiwanga as winner of the

Marcel Duchamp Prize The Marcel Duchamp Prize (in French : ''Prix Marcel Duchamp'') is an annual award given to a young artist by the Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l'Art Français (ADIAF). The winner receives €35,000 personally and up to €30,000 ...

. In October 2021, she was appointed president of the board of directors of the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a sixteenth-century Italian Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with 7-hectare Italian garden, contiguous with the more extensive Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in the historic ...

in Rome.

Awards

In 2014, the Fondation Zinsou was awarded a young artists grant from the Japan Art Association's

Praemium Imperiale Prince Takamatsu The Praemium Imperiale () is an international art prize inaugurated in 1988 and awarded since 1989 by the Imperial family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association in the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, mu ...

.Léa Desrayaud
"Art: l'encouragement du Praemium Imperiale à la Fondation Zinsou basée à Cotonou"
''Le Point'', 18 July 2014 (in French). Also in 2014, she was made a

Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant co ...

References

External links