Home is where the art is for curator Tumelo Mosaka

Outsider Tumelo Mosaka has little local experience, yet isn’t this what the curator of the city’s annual art highlight needs

Tumelo Mosaka is what you could call a curator's curator.

Many bandy this title around lightly. This Joburger, who has spent the past two decades carving out a career as a curator in the US, understands that curating involves more than selecting artists, or artworks; that at its heart it is about generating, provoking a dialogue and mediating and shaping the arts' (shifting) role in society.

This ethos has guided his involvement in a fascinating string of projects, which include evoking a conversation about the legacy of slavery in Charleston or shining a light on the artistic and cultural contributions of Caribbean communities in New York. In these contexts Mosaka has not been interested in art's value as a commodity or as part of an asset class. Rather, he set out to use art to generate "a safe environment for a conversation to raise issues in a constructive way.

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Art has the capability to enter a situation where there is a deep divide and present an alternative to talking about it. It allows you to accept differences, but agree that you are affected by the same things," he says.

This all makes Mosaka an unusual fit as the new curator for the Cape Town Art Fair, which opens this week at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Given his experience and perspective, he is likely to challenge the scheme driving this annual Cape Town art event.

"In South Africa we don't need to replicate the Basel or Hong Kong [art fair] model. We can create other avenues for a hybrid. We need the resources to do that and that is the struggle right now," he says over a coffee.

He had flown into Cape Town a few days before and has been orienting himself. After decades living outside the country he admits he doesn't have a firm grasp on the South African art scene. This could be his undoing or make him an ideal candidate for his role in the art fair - he comes with a fresh perspective and won't be so easily swayed by local politics in the art world.

To exist as a curator Mosaka had to leave the country; given the failing public art institutions, there were few prospects. Since completing an MA in curatorial studies in New York in the late '90s, he has dedicated himself to working in environments conducive to curating; that is, non-commercial ones, where the primary goal is to engage the public and commission, challenge and exchange ideas with artists.

In the early noughties he curated a public art programme set in Charleston, South Carolina. Creating Listening Across Cultures (2001) was a challenging project for an outsider. He lived in Charleston for two years to embed himself in the sociopolitical dynamics: "It is a racially divided place, one of historical importance as a port of entry for slaves. All that history is very present. Yet the dominant psychology is to deny it," he observes.

He won't have two years to feel out Cape Town before reconceptualising the art fair, but that is not really what is required. Within the confines of a hyper-commercial event like an art fair, turnover and sales are a marker of success.

He knew his Charleston programme had succeeded when a building contractor spontaneously created a site-specific art installation - a doorway on an empty lot.

Naturally, growing up in South Africa provided the grounding to tackle conflict through artistic modes. He cut his teeth in curating as an intern during the first Joburg Biennale in 1995. It is also in his home town that he produced the exhibition that holds the most significance for him. Youth Uprising Point of No Return was a photographic exhibition staged in 10 containers in Soweto.

It documented and commemorated the June 16 uprising in Soweto. He may have only been in primary school in 1976, but that historic day left an indelible mark: "The trains weren't running and it took us five hours to walk home because we were ducking and hiding from the police."

His community-focused approach, which defined the Charleston projects, would also drive the exhibitions he curated at the Brooklyn Museum in the mid-noughties.

"I arrived at an important time, the museum was trying to redefine itself and how it connected to the surrounding community, which I discovered was mostly from the Caribbean."

This set Mosaka on a course to expose and celebrate contemporary artists from the Caribbean. Curators must strive to balance "public interest, institutional motivations and artistic integrity", he says.

Mosaka's international credentials count in raising the fair's profile at a time when African art is on the rise and the art world's gaze will be turning towards Cape Town when Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa opens at the Waterfront. This landmark development, set to take place in September, will draw a hard line between a parochial art landscape and one embracing the continent and speaking to an international audience.

African art is gaining traction overseas. There are two fairs dedicated to it: the annual 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in New York and London; and the Also Known as African Art fair in Paris. Following in the footsteps of Bonhams in London, auction house Sotheby's has also established a department focused on sales in this category.

Mosaka is nonplussed by all this activity: "All these efforts have meant something in terms of putting a spotlight [on African art], but are we not basically rehearsing the same story ... How can we present the same story differently?"

Curating the Cape Town Art Fair provides a way for him to rediscover or re-immerse himself in South African and African art. It will be hard to gauge his impact, but it will be interesting to see how, over time, he can apply his public-community-centric ethos in an art fair context.

• The Cape Town Art Fair takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from February 17 to 19