Ibrahim Mahama at the Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp

Ibrahim Mahama presents ‘On Monumental Silences’ at the Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp.

Curated by Antonia Alampi, the project is a response to the presence of monuments with messages of racism, white supremacy, imperialism and patriarchy located in Belgium and Flanders. Engaging with the infamous monument of Father De Deken in Wilrijk (by Jean-Marie Hérain, 1904), the exhibition challenges the narrative of public monuments and questions how to actively intervene.

The project began on 16 January 2018 with ‘Silent Recreations’, a performative and participatory action by Mahama. Together with the audience, the artist modified and reimagined a human-sized soft clay copy of Father De Deken during a discussion with historian, diversity and inclusion expert Omar Ba.

The exhibition marks the first in a series of interventions within a three-year collaboration between Extra City and the Middelheim Museum, in which the function of monuments in the city of today is critically re-assessed.