Catalog published on the occasion of Documenta 14, held 8th April-16th July 2017, in Athens and 10th June-17th September in Kassel.Co-issued with: White Cube gallery (London, England).
 
Ibrahim Mahama uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalisation and economic exchange. Often made in collaboration, his large-scale installations employ materials gathered from urban environments such remnants of wood and textiles or jute sacks, which are sewn together and draped over architectural structures. Mahama's interest in material, process and audience has led him to focus on jute sacks in particular since they are synonymous with the trade markets of Ghana where he lives and works. Fabricated in Southeast Asia, the sacks are imported by the Ghana Cocoa Boards to transport cocoa beans but end up as multi-functional objects, used for both the transportation of food and commodities and for many daily chores around the home. 'You find different points of aesthetics within the surface of the sacks' fabric' Mahama has said. 'I am interested in how crisis and failure are absorbed into this material with a strong reference to global transaction and how capitalist structures work.'