Ibrahim Mahama: The Harvest Season

The Harvest Season is a major exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris that marks Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama’s first large-scale exhibition in the city. Conceived by Mahama alongside nine artists and collectives—Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Gideon Appah, James Barnor, the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), Courage Dzidula Kpodo, Zohra Opoku, Postbox Ghana, Tjaša Rener, and Feda Wardak—the exhibition transforms the Fondation Cartier’s new building into a collaborative environment inspired by the network of art centers Mahama has established in Tamale, Ghana. Through site-specific installations, archives, textiles, photography, architecture, and film, the exhibition reflects on collective creation, transmission of knowledge, and possible futures for African cultural institutions.

Zohra Opoku, among the participating artists, brings a practice centered on textiles and the construction of identity. Drawing on personal photographs, historical narratives, and Ghanaian dress traditions, the German-Ghanaian artist screen prints images onto pre-dyed fabrics, which she then embroiders and assembles into layered compositions. Her presentation includes a selection of both earlier and recent textile works, including pieces created specifically for the Fondation Cartier, exploring the intersections of personal memory, cultural heritage, and social history.

Curated by Aby Gaye-Duparc (Ibrahim Mahama) and Jeanne Barral (associate artists), The Harvest Season takes its title from the cycle of sowing, cultivating, and harvesting ideas. Drawing connections between historical visions of African independence, contemporary artistic collaboration, and community-led cultural initiatives, the exhibition proposes history as a resource for imagining new social, political, and cultural futures.