There are no working trains in Northern Ghana. But in a new film premiering on YouTubetoday, (15 October 2024) award-winning visual artist Ibrahim Mahama leads a project to bring old colonial railcars to the site of his Tamale-based art space - Red Clay Studio.
Ibrahim is known for using artefacts and discarded materials to create monumental art installations which draw attention to the tangible remnants of history.
And in this 20-minute film entitled Dear Home of Scars his intentions are no different.
Ibrahim's latest art installation involves the reconstruction of a railway track, and with the help of the local community, hauling a railcar on to the track.
During British rule of Ghana (1821-1957), the British used trains to transport gold, timber, and other resources to the coast, and used local manpower, some coming from the North, to achieve that. The North, however, never benefited from a rail system or its spoils.
In this film, we see Ibrahim interrogate this aspect of Ghana's history, describing these abandoned symbols of colonialism as the 'scars in the landscape', and highlighting how centuries of exploitation continues to impact on local communities.
Viewers will see through the eyes and words of youngsters from the local community what these new structures mean to them. And this film also offers powerful reflections and hope for the future of the city, the region and hopefully Ghana.
Ibrahim lives and works in Accra, Kumasi, and Tamale and uses his fame and resources to actively improve social conditions in Ghana, and build the infrastructure for a flourishing local art scene.
The film is written and directed by filmmaker and film teacher Marina Meijer, and co-produced by Een van de jongens and Ammodo.
Dear Home of Scars is part of Ammodo Docs, a series of short documentaries about original minds in arts and science. Ibrahim Mahama's Dear Home of Scars is one of four films the prroduction team have made this year.
The others are: Stephanie Wehner – Moonshot Mission, Jonathas de Andrade – Northern Winds and Pierre Audi – Three Acts.
By releasing new films each year, Ammodo Docs works on a growing collection of free-to-watch documentaries around various contemporary challenges.
Ibrahim and art
Ibrahim is founder of various art and educational spaces in Tamale, including Red Clay Studio, Savannah Centre for Contemporary Arts (SCCA) and Nkrumah Volini.
In April 2024, he transformed the brutalist-style concrete walls at Barbican's Lakeside Terrace into an explosion of approximately 2,000 square metres of fuchsia handwoven batakari textiles.
He is ranked sixth most influential person in the artworld in 2023 by ArtReview and won the Principal Prince Claus Award in 2020 and the Sam Gilliam Award in 2024.
Read more about him here and listen out for our interview with the artist on our 'Connecting Communities Podcast' coming out soon.
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