OSNABRÜCK.- On December 15, 2pm, Kunsthalle Osnabrück released two publications on Ibrahim Mahama’s TRANSFER(S) and Aram Bartholl’s Package Ready for Pickup. Both Ibrahim Mahama and Aram Bartholl were present for the event to introduce the publications and reflect on their projects together with the curators Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh and Bettina Klein as well as with the directors of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück Anna Jehle and Juliane Schickedanz.

With TRANSFER(S), Ibrahim Mahama wrapped the former Galeria Kaufhof department store building in Osnabrück’s urban space. Following the installation, an interdisciplinary conference was held at Mahama’s Red Clay studio complex in Tamale, Ghana. With Package Ready for Pickup, Aram Bartholl transformed the nave of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück into a walk-in recycling yard. His exhibition was accompanied by an extensive art mediation programme with the participation of other artists and sustainability initiatives from Osnabrück.

At the same time, the Kunsthalle Osnabrück is currently showing the new solo exhibition On the Street Where You Live by artist Steve Bishop. The exhibition is part of the annual programme Kids, listen up! of Kunsthalle Osnabrück.

Ibrahim Mahama, TRANSFER(S)
Editor: City of Osnabrück / Kunsthalle Osnabrück (Anna Jehle and Juliane Schickdanz)
Co-Editors: Bettina Klein and Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh

TRANSFER(S) was an interdisciplinary exhibition and research project by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama. To mark the 375th Anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia in the City of Osnabrück, Mahama covered the façade of the 27-metre-high former Galeria Kaufhof department store building in the centre of Osnabrück with more than 5180m² of fabric. Over 90 batakaris—traditional Ghanaian garments collected by the artist—were added to the fabric panels.

Ibrahim Mahama’s textile installation was a reminder of Osnabrück’s capital-rich history of the linen trade, which since the introduction of the Westphalian system in the 17th century was all the more closely linked to the African slave trade orchestrated from Europe. The jute sacks in Mahama’s installation are in turn marked by contemporary trade relations and remind us that the economic exploitation of the Global South by Western states still persists.

The publication documents the installation TRANSFER(S) in Osnabrück, as well as the project’s second part, a symposium held in cooperation with SCCA Tamale at Mahama’s Red Clay studio complex in Tamale, Ghana. With contributions by Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Isaac Gyasi, Thorsten Heese, Priscilla Kennedy, Bettina Klein, Koliko, Ibrahim Mahama, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh, Zohra Opoku and The Revival, Gabriel Schimmeroth, kąrî’kạchä seid’ōu, and Klaus Weber.

Funded by TURN2 Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur and DAAD.

Aram Bartholl, Package Ready for Pickup
Editor: City of Osnabrück / Kunsthalle Osnabrück (Anna Jehle and Juliane Schickedanz)

For two decades, Aram Bartholl has been exploring the potentials, consequences and contradictions of a digital society whose media consumption and data flows are based on logistics and hardware. With the solo exhibition Package Ready for Pickup, Aram Bartholl created a walk-through course of piled-up electronic waste that confronted visitors with the dimension of the devaluation and scrapping of electronics and computer technology.

Aram Bartholl’s installation focused in many ways on exchange with the visitors and the inclusion of their perspectives but also expertise. For eight months the exhibition space also served as a meeting, event, mediation, and thinking space for local sustainability initiatives and artistic interventions. The exhibition was complemented by a 30 metre long DHL parcel station. People could pick up their parcels here during the Kunsthalle’s opening hours.

The publication Package Ready for Pickup documents the artist’s most extensive solo exhibition to date. With contributions by Tilman Baumgärtel, Marloes de Valk, Anna Jehle, and Juliane Schickedanz.