Ibrahim Mahama. Le Temps des récoltes

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain presents Le Temps des récoltes, an exhibition of unprecedented scale in France by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, accompanied by nine associate artists: Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Gideon Appah, James Barnor, Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), Courage Dzidula Kpodo, Zohra Opoku, Postbox Ghana, Tjaša Rener, Feda Wardak.

For the Fondation Cartier, Ibrahim Mahama envisions a living entity in resonance with the art centres he founded in Tamale, in northern Ghana. Together with the associate artists, he takes over the institution's entire spaces on Place du Palais-Royal, featuring works created specifically for the site, as well as previously unseen versions of some of his iconic installations.

Conceived by Ibrahim Mahama with nine artists and collectives, all linked to him through long-standing collaborations, research, or exchanges, the exhibition Le Temps des récoltes is a direct extension of this approach. It echoes the three art centres founded by the artist in Tamale, in northern Ghana, since 2019. Conceived as spaces of creation, transmission, and local grounding, these centres contribute to the emergence of a network of independent cultural institutions across the African continent, where pedagogy plays a central role.

The exhibition focuses on the political, cultural, and social utopias formulated during African independence in the 1950s and 1960s, proposing to reactivate their imaginaries in order to explore possible futures.

The work of James Barnor (born in Ghana in 1929), one of the nine associate artists, spans more than seven decades, traverses continents, and encompasses diverse photographic genres, from studio portraiture to outdoor photography, with an energy and an ever-renewed perspective on the world. Considered a pioneer of photography in Africa, he founded the Ever Young studio in Accra in 1953, a key venue for Ghanaian society on the road to independence, and a meeting and socializing space for young people. He shares with Ibrahim Mahama a common desire to pass on Ghana's cultural and industrial heritage to younger generations. This aspiration took concrete shape during their meeting in Tamale in 2024, witnessed by a film and large-format polaroids exhibited for the first time.