Ibrahim Mahama

LIVING GRAINS

Opening Friday, 25 October 2019from 6:00 to 9:00pm

from 26 October to 21 December, 2019

Fondazione Giuliani is very pleased to present Living Grains, the first exhibition in Rome of Ghana-based artist, Ibrahim Mahama. The exhibition includes a range of newly commissioned artworks, including a large-scale installation, photographs, drawings and virtual reality film.

Embedded within the specific cultural and socio-political history of Ghana, the work of Ibrahim Mahama addresses issues of globalisation, labour, the exchange of materials and community building, ultimately bringing to the fore a more universal social condition. Mahama is perhaps most well known for his wrapping of architectural structures with jute sacks. Originally made in Southeast Asia and imported to Ghana to transport cocoa beans, these sacks eventually become multi-functional objects reused both by local goods sellers, and for various needs in the home. Both material and commodity trajectory – with its textured skin that retains the imprint of its own history – exemplify the crux of Mahama’s practice: the investigation of the memories and decay of history, cultural fragments, the discarding and future transformation of objects gathered from the urban environment. Through his examination of the history of these objects, Mahama underlies how their evolution over time denotes the developments and changes in contemporary society.