Ibrahim Mahama at Oude Kerk

Ibrahim Mahama’s first Dutch solo presentation has been a two-year project at the Oude Kerk, a centuries-old church building with a 3000m² floor area of tombstones. Titled Garden of Scars, the installation is a constellation of sculptures, composed of casts Mahama has made from the floor of the Oude Kerk and the floor of Fort Elmina (1482), a castle on the coast of Ghana. Erected by the Portuguese in 1482 and seized by the Dutch in 1637, Fort Elmina initially served as a trading post for gold before becoming one of the most important stops in the route of the Atlantic slave trade.

‘For me it was very interesting to be able to look at the memory of the space, in relation to the echoes of history, and connection to other spaces,’ Ibrahim Mahama has said.