Ibrahim Mahama is the artistic director of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale

Ibrahim Mahama has been named artistic director of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts (15 September 2023–14 January 2024) by the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC).

Mahama is an artist from Ghana, a country with a solid connection to Yugoslavia between the late 1950s and 1966, when Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown in a military coup d’état. Mahama has long been interested in the post-independence infrastructure in Ghana, especially in buildings that were part of a Nkrumah socialist programme to make Ghana self-sufficient. Later, these structures were wholly abandoned. The impact of architects from former Yugoslavia on the institutional buildings such as the University in Kumasi was particularly significant in this period. Ibrahim Mahama sees the invitation to become the artistic director of the Ljubljana Biennale as a challenging opportunity to explore this part of history and reconnect some of the lost moments or voids of that time’s shared connection between Ghana and former Yugoslavia.

The artist stated that the next Biennale in Ljubljana will be quite simple. Simultaneously, it will make connections that have been forgotten or are unlikely to be made in its context. Within the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Mahama is particularly interested in (re-)establishing such links, particularly between the local Slovenian art community and artists from other countries, thereby fostering intercontinental relations.

Under the direction of artistic director Ibrahim Mahama, the 35th edition of the Ljubljana Biennale will be created in collaboration with a number of international (to be announced) and national partners, including Cukrarna Gallery, a recently renovated sugar refinery from 1828 that has been a venue for both exhibiting and performing contemporary art since September 2021.