Fondation Cartier Hosts Ibrahim Mahama’s Groundbreaking Exhibition
Ibrahim Mahama’s most comprehensive project to date is set to be showcased at the Fondation Cartier Contemporary Art Foundation in October. The exhibition titled The Harvest Season will span the entire new venue of the institution at Place du Palais Royal, transforming it into a vibrant structure focusing on production, labor, and collaborative learning practices at its core. Mahama’s collective production approach, developed over a long period, aims to turn the exhibition into more than just a visited space but into a shared experience.
Ibrahim Mahama is one of the artists who turns his relationship with materials into a kind of social memory reading. In his large-scale installations, he gathers fabrics, sacks, and worn-out pieces of everyday life that have passed through ports, markets, and warehouses. For the project he prepared for Fondation Cartier, Mahama draws inspiration from the production models he has developed in Tamale since 2019, turning the production process into a long-term sharing space and designing the exhibition as a meeting place where collective work is visible. In addition to new works specially produced for the space, the exhibition will also include previously unrevealed versions of the artist’s known installations.
Common Histories, Shared Voices
Mahama addresses the history of Ghana from the colonial period to the present day along with contemporary issues through his works. Labor, the circulation of goods, return debates, and the economy of shrinkage are prominent themes in the artist’s productions. His collaborations with local communities in Northern Ghana and the educational centers he has established form an important network contributing to the development of independent cultural institutions in Africa.
Mahama’s exhibition brings together nine artists and collectives from different generations at his invitation. Photographer James Barnor’s Ever Young Studio, revived in Tamale, carries Ghana’s visual memory from the independence years to the present. Dorothy Akpene Amenuke’s works focusing on jute sacks make visible stories born from the everyday use of materials. Gideon Appah reinterprets the official narratives of history with his paintings inspired by archive images from the independence period. Architect Courage Dzidula Kpodo from the Postbox Ghana collective addresses the relationship between architecture and memory through documents from the early years of the young Ghanaian state.
View this post on Instagram
Zohra Opoku’s serigraph works on recycled fabrics convey the artist’s bicultural identity in a personal manner. The Congo-based Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs des Plantations Congolaises, with their productions viewing art as a tool for social transformation, also contributes to the project. Tjaša Rener traces the connections between Ghana and former Yugoslavia through individual stories, while Feda Wardak’s installation focuses on the present-day impacts of industrial infrastructures from the colonial period.
Ibrahim Mahama, a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2013, gained international recognition with his installation Out of Bounds at the 56th Venice Biennale. The artist later participated in Documenta 14 and exhibited his works at institutions such as Barbican, Kunsthalle Wien, Sharjah Biennial. In 2023, he took on the role of art director at the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. His works are now part of important collections such as Centre Pompidou, Hammer Museum, and Studio Museum in Harlem.
