Ibrahim Mahama; Founder of Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art

Ibrahim Mahama sccatamale- Red Clay Studios

Ibrahim Mahama (b.1987) in Tamale Ghana is an artist who lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, Ghana.

He started his practice through his interest in the history of materials and architecture. Failure and delay through specific forms always inform his choice of sites which believes the works do not only occupy but are also occupied within the works/objects.

Ibrahim Mahama’s architectural installations have already been seen in cities such as New York, Athens, and London – but now the 31-year-olds work is being shown in Ghana’s first-ever National Pavilion, at one of the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions in the world, the Venice Biennale.

Residues and points of chaos registered as marks within the forms he selects, they present us alternative perspectives of looking into the materials/Labour conditions of society. Form is important.

His work has included objects from jute sacks used to transport commodities to the point of decay and later sewn together with a network of collaborators under specific Labour conditions which is then superimposed on architecture.

The politics of the hand and it’s parallel relation with architectural forms become a lot more evident. His most recent work, a straight line through the carcass of history has also dealt with forms related to the second world war and bacteria life.

‘ When I grow up I want to become a pilot only ride a white elephant through the streets of Tamale…..Special thanks to all those who made the transport airplane from the Tamale Airport to our studio in Jenakpieng possible. More possibilities ahead.
‘ Ibrahim Mahama

His work has been included in the 56, 57 and 58 Venice Biennale, documenta 14 Athens and Kassel, Orderly Disorderly, Accra, Images An Age of Our Own Making, Denmark, the island is what the sea surrounds, valletta 18, Malta and Spectacles Spectations, Kumasi Ghana and Labour of Many at the Norval Foundation, Cape Town.

He finished a year residency with the DAAD in Berlin in 2018. His current interests are using specific architectural forms with history in the formation of spaces inspired by the potentialities and failures of modernity.

SCCA Tamale is an artist-run project space, exhibition and research hub, cultural repository and artists’ residency.  

SCCA Tamale is an initiative of world-renowned Ghanaian artist, Ibrahim Mahama, as a contribution towards transforming the contemporary art scene in Ghana.

The SCCA-Tamale team intends, with its diverse programming and research interests, to spotlight significant moments in Ghanaian and international art in a communal space. 

Affiliated to blaxTARLINES KUMASI, the Centre is operated by committed, dedicated and generous persons who produce critical discourse that will eventually be disseminated through exhibitions, publications and allied activities.

SCCA-Tamale is dedicated to art and cultural practices which emerged in the 20thCentury and inspire generations of artists and thinkers of the 21stCentury and beyond.

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