Running until 28 February 2027, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain presents The Harvest Season, a major exhibition by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, bringing together his work with that of nine invited artists and collectives. Marking Mahama’s first major exhibition in Paris, the presentation occupies the Fondation Cartier’s new spaces with a series of large-scale installations, archival material, photography, painting and site-specific works.

Born in 1987 in Tamale, northern Ghana, Mahama is internationally recognised for his monumental installations incorporating collected materials, industrial remnants and historical archives. His practice examines Ghana’s colonial and postcolonial histories, exploring questions of collective memory.

For The Harvest Season, Mahama extends this approach through a collaborative presentation featuring Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Gideon Appah, James Barnor, the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), Courage Dzidula Kpodo and Postbox Ghana, Zohra Opoku, Tjaša Rener and Feda Wardak. Their contributions bring together different artistic and research practices.

The exhibition also reflects Mahama’s commitment to building independent cultural infrastructures in Ghana. Since 2019, he has established three art centres in Tamale, conceived as spaces for artistic production, education and the exchange of knowledge. These initiatives provide an important context for the exhibition, which considers the role of cultural institutions in shaping new forms of artistic and social engagement across the African continent.

Among the contributions, James Barnor presents vintage photographs and albums documenting the years following Ghanaian independence, while Gideon Appah draws on visual archives from the 1950s to the 1980s to create paintings that bring historical imagery into dialogue with imagined narratives. Dorothy Akpene Amenuke transforms jute and handmade paper into large-scale installations, while Zohra Opoku explores questions of identity and memory through textiles, photography and embroidery. The exhibition also features architectural research, archival material and collaborative works examining the legacies of colonial infrastructure.

Bringing these practices together, The Harvest Season looks towards the future through a reconsideration of the dark past. It explores how artistic collaboration, the transmission of knowledge and the reactivation of historical memories can contribute to new cultural possibilities. It’s a must-see if you’re in Paris.

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Image: Ibrahim Mahama, Season of Migration to the North, 2025-2026, pots en terre cuite et bouteilles en verre, Red Clay, Tamale