Ibrahim Mahama: Seeing beauty in the discarded and decayed

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26 gets under way, we meet the Ghanaian artist who is already doing his bit for the environment - by repurposing materials at the end of their working life to create his large-scale installations. Seeing beauty in the disused, discarded and decayed and telling stories of commodity and globalisation. Even turning a ruined silo in Tamale into a cultural institution.

Ibrahim Mahama’s architectural installations have been seen around the world - in cities like New York, Athens and London - but in 2019, the then 31 year old was preparing work for Ghana’s first ever National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Reporter Frenny Jowi joined Ibrahim as he travelled to Sekondi-Takoradi and Accra, to meet with local workers and search for abandoned and salvaged materials to use in his creations; such as jute sacks found in food markets, old documents from a locomotive workshop, mesh cages used to smoke fish and boats no longer fit for purpose.

Join Ibrahim and Frenny for an evocative journey along the south coast of Ghana.

Presented by Frenny Jowi
Produced by Frenny Jowi and Ella-mai Robey for the BBC World Service

Image Credit: White Cube George Darrell