Ibrahim Mahama turns abandoned Paris factory into Ghanaian art installation
Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama has transformed a disused bottle factory into a striking installation at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. The exhibition uses industrial ruins and Ghanaian history to explore how communities can reclaim the past and imagine new futures after colonialism and political upheaval.
The factory, which Mahama bought in 2024, features rusted steel beams and thousands of bottles in crates once used by regional drinks brands. The show also gives prominence to nine other artists and collectives, including works drawing on traditional materials, photography and imagined Ghanaian life; one collective’s chocolate sculptures address land confiscated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Mahama rebuilt a Ghanaian bottle factory inside a Paris exhibition.
- The show links industrial history with post-colonial Ghanaian futures.
- Nine other artists and collectives share the exhibition’s focus.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “Why has a crumbling bottle plant been rebuilt in Paris? The stunning show suggesting the future is Ghana-shaped”.