With the exhibition Vanishing Points 2014
2020 at REITER, the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama (*1987) has his first solo show in a German gallery. For his large, site-specific installation, the artist has arranged a hundred old wheelbarrows, which he collected from workers in Ghana, giving them new ones in return. The rusty, worn wheelbarrows bear the obvious marks of daily hard labour and can be understood as a symbol of that. They also represent the construction that manifests in architecture throughout the history of the artist’s homeland. At the same time the work can also be regarded in the context of his project Parliament of Ghosts, which was on display in Tamale, Ghana, in 2020. It is a forum for debate that also continues with the idea of social sculpture.
Ibrahim Mahama was born in 1987 in Tamale, Ghana. He lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. His work has appeared in numerous international exhibitions including NIRIN, 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); tomorrow, there will be more of us, Stellenbosch Triennale (2020); Future Genealogies, Tales From The Equatorial Line, 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019); Parliament of Ghosts, The Whitworth, University of Manchester (2019); Ghana Freedom, inaugural Ghana pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale, Venice (2019); Labour of Many, Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2019); Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel (2017); All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015); Artist’s Rooms, K21, Dusseldorf (2015); Material Effects, The Broad Art Museum, Michigan (2015); An Age of Our Own Making, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen and Holbaek (2016) and Fracture, Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel (2016). In March 2019, Ibrahim Mahama opened the artist-run project space Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) in Tamale, Ghana, followed by the opening of Red Clay in nearby Janna Kpe?? in September 2020. Comprising exhibition space, research facilities and an artist-residency hub, both sites represent Mahama’s contribution towards the development and expansion of the contemporary art scene in his home country. 44 colour illustrations