Ibrahim Mahama: Art and Global South Solidarity

“Yes, the Red Clay, my studio, was basically the idea of opening up the possibility of experiencing culture in different ways. I’m really interested in what culture has to offer to any given society. Also new and old. I try to focus on the new because I think that children, if they are close to culture and its complexity from different angles, it allows them to develop a bit more empathy towards the world. A lot of people come to my studio for the first time to see contemporary art. They might be composed of objects or things that they know, but they don’t know which way. That’s the beauty about art, that art, in its true sense, always allows for an expansion of freedom, of freedom that we know, that freedom and democracy is not fixed. You know, there’s so much tension within art itself. The studio allows the public to rethink their position when it comes to thinking about art and the freedoms that allow it.”

“I like the idea that there are objects which ordinarily might be broken, discarded, thrown away, but in our context and case, we are somehow trying to focus on the inherent value of memory within these subjects, and we are trying by reconstituting them and saving them. We are allowing a much more collective response to these objects. A collective response in the sense that it allows for a lot of people to be able to go back and relate to these objects. Like the furniture in Kochi. A lot of people see them and they’re like, oh, wow, look, I remember this chair from here, there. It allows for a sense of collective reflection. So, for me, I think that when something is declared dead or something like that, it can be discarded. And we, as practitioners, artists, we save it. We all share in the history of that, but someone has to take the responsibility. Art allows us to exercise a sense of responsibility.”