Ibrahim Mahama transforms Ghana's industrial past into a vision of the future at Fondation Cartier
PARIS.—
What happens to the ambitions of a nation when its factories close, its institutions disappear, and the promises of independence remain unfulfilled? For Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, the answer lies not in abandoning the past but in bringing its forgotten materials, buildings, and histories back to life.
At the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris, Mahama explores these questions in Le Temps des récoltes (The Time of Harvests), an ambitious exhibition running from October 22, 2026, through February 28, 2027. Described by the institution as the largest presentation of his work yet organized in France, the exhibition brings together monumental installations, archival materials, and the contributions of nine artists and collectives whose practices intersect with his own.
Taking over the Fondation Cartier's exhibition spaces at Place du Palais-Royal, the project transforms the museum into something more than a place for displaying art. It becomes a forum for discussing memory, collective responsibility, and the possibilities hidden within histories that once seemed to have reached an end.
A parliament filled with ghosts
One of the exhibition's central installations, Parliament of Ghosts, invites visitors to enter a parliamentary chamber assembled from traditional wooden Ashanti stools collected in Ghana.
The seating arrangement evokes a political institution, yet its representatives are conspicuously absent. The work recalls the military coup of February 24, 1966, which overthrew Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, bringing an abrupt end to an ambitious period of national development.
For Mahama, the empty parliament represents not only political failure but also the possibility of imagining institutions differently. Visitors are encouraged to occupy the seats, transforming what might otherwise be a monument to absence into a space of participation.
Throughout the exhibition, the installation serves as a venue for performances, concerts, discussions, and educational activities. In this way, the work moves beyond sculpture to become a functioning social space.
Rebuilding a forgotten factory
Another major installation, Things Fall Apart, brings a fragment of Ghana's industrial history into the heart of Paris.
The project reconstructs a former glass-bottle factory from Aboso, in southwestern Ghana, using original components salvaged from the abandoned industrial complex.
Opened in 1966, the factory was among the final major development projects initiated under Nkrumah before his government was overthrown. After decades of unsuccessful restructuring and privatization, the facility fell into disuse.
Mahama acquired the property in 2024 and began dismantling its structures, transporting steel frameworks, molds, bottles, and glass fragments to his cultural complex at Red Clay in Tamale.
Named after Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe's celebrated 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, the installation approaches industrial ruins not simply as evidence of decline but as materials capable of supporting new forms of knowledge and collective activity.
Rather than restoring the factory to an imagined former glory, Mahama asks what new purposes its remains might serve.
From discarded materials to collective memory
Born in Tamale in 1987, Mahama has developed an internationally recognized practice using materials whose surfaces carry the evidence of labor, trade, and economic exchange.
His best-known works frequently incorporate old jute sacks once used to transport commodities such as cocoa and coal. Stained, repaired, and repeatedly handled, these ordinary objects preserve traces of the people and commercial systems through which they have passed.
The artist's approach grew from his interest in the economic history of buildings and the relationship between industrial production and national identity.
For Mahama, repairing a damaged object is more than a technical process. It is a way of resisting the assumption that something loses its value once it is worn out or no longer serves its original purpose.
That philosophy is also reflected in his architectural projects, where abandoned infrastructure is transformed into spaces for education, artistic experimentation, and community life.
Creating a cultural future in northern Ghana
Beyond his exhibition practice, Mahama has established three important cultural centers in Tamale: the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, founded in 2019; Red Clay, opened in 2020; and Nkrumah Voli-ni, established in 2022.
These institutions are dedicated to contemporary artistic production, the preservation of historical materials, and education for younger generations.
Their activities reflect a broader movement toward independent cultural infrastructure across Africa, where artists and curators are developing institutions rooted in local communities rather than relying exclusively on established international art centers.
The Paris exhibition extends this philosophy by presenting the Fondation Cartier as a living environment connected to the artist's projects in Ghana.
A monumental textile installation also occupies the arches of the institution's façade, making Mahama's work visible beyond the museum itself.
Nine artists expand the conversation
The exhibition brings Mahama into dialogue with nine artists and collectives whose work approaches history, identity, architecture, and repair from different perspectives.
Among them is James Barnor, the pioneering Ghanaian photographer whose images documented the country's independence-era society and the African diaspora in 1960s London.
Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, who taught Mahama at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, contributes a sculptural approach to textiles shaped by collaboration and everyday materials.
Gideon Appah explores memories of Ghana's independence period through richly colored paintings, while architect and artist Courage Dzidula Kpodo investigates the country's modernist and vernacular architectural heritage.
Postbox Ghana preserves historical images of West African buildings through postcards and archival research. Zohra Opoku explores identity and family memory through photography, embroidery, and inherited textiles.
The Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), a collective based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, connects artistic production with efforts to reclaim plantation land and support regenerative agriculture.
Tjaša Rener examines personal and political connections between Ghana and the former Yugoslavia, while French-Afghan artist and architect Feda Wardak explores the relationship between damaged infrastructure, environmental resources, and collective repair.
Together, their contributions broaden the exhibition's central argument: history is not simply something to preserve, but something that can be reconsidered and put to work.
Harvesting possibilities from the past
The exhibition's agricultural title offers a metaphor for Mahama's understanding of artistic practice. Ideas are planted, knowledge is shared, and collective efforts eventually produce results that may extend far beyond their original circumstances.
In a moment when cultural institutions are increasingly reconsidering their relationships with historical collections, colonial legacies, and local communities, Mahama proposes a different model of artistic engagement.
The factory becomes a classroom. The parliament becomes a gathering place. Discarded materials become vessels for histories that might otherwise disappear.
At the Fondation Cartier, these transformations suggest that the future is not built by erasing the past, but by discovering what remains possible within it.
Ibrahim Mahama: Le Temps des récoltes is on view at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris from October 22, 2026, through February 28, 2027. The exhibition is curated by Aby Gaye-Duparc, with Jeanne Barral responsible for the associated artists and Chiara Agradi as associate curator for James Barnor.
