Part of a Ghanaian glass bottle factory now stands in the heart of Paris. It is one of the centrepieces of The Harvest Season, Ibrahim Mahama's first major exhibition in the French capital.
The show opened at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain on October 22, 2026, and runs until February 28, 2027. Mahama, born in Tamale in 1987, fills the foundation's new space alongside nine invited artists and collectives.
A factory with a story
The factory was built in Ghana between 1961 and 1966. It was designed in Czechoslovakia, manufactured in Germany and opened in 1966, just 19 days before the coup that toppled Kwame Nkrumah.
After decades of use it was decommissioned and sold for scrap. Mahama used Fondation Cartier funds to buy back part of the structure and ship it to France, where it has been rebuilt as a pavilion.
He also saved about 300,000 abandoned glass bottles and the factory's sign. The pavilion will double as a classroom and a space for performances and drawing classes.
Stools that tell stories
Another key work, Parliament of Ghosts, gathers traditional Asante wooden stools collected in Ghana. Some were damaged, so Mahama brought them to his Red Clay art centre in Tamale, where they were repaired with schoolchildren taking part.
The marks of damage and repair were left visible on purpose. The work also raises questions about how African cultural objects end up in European institutions.
Ghana's art scene in Paris
The invited artists include photographer James Barnor, Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, the first female art professor at KNUST, painter Gideon Appah, Zohra Opoku, and Courage Dzidula Kpodo with the Postbox Ghana collective. They are joined by the Congolese collective CATPC, Slovenian artist Tjaša Rener and Franco-Afghan architect Feda Wardak.
The exhibition draws on the three art centres Mahama has founded in Tamale since 2019. Talks, workshops and performances will run alongside it.
In the artist's own words, the past is where "we can excavate the potential of the future."
