"The first thing that hits you is the smell of the jute sacking arrayed on either side of the vast ballroom at 93 Mortimer Street in the heart of London's Fitzrovia. This is Ibrahim Mahama's Parliament of Ghosts, an installation that fills the room with colonial furniture, cushions and plinths evoking the artist's native Ghana and its past. The installation is the first to be shown in a new cultural centre in London, due to open on 15 October."
""The space is born out of a conviction that freedom of expression is increasingly under threat everywhere," she says. "That makes it all the more urgent for private institutions to take responsibility for creating environments where difficult and necessary conversations can take place openly." Ibraaz means "to shine a light on" in Arabic, and the space will host events from talks and performances to film screenings and art exhibitions."
The installation fills a vast ballroom at 93 Mortimer Street with jute-sacked plinths, colonial furniture, cushions and objects that evoke Ghana and its past. The show will inaugurate a new cultural centre opening on 15 October, housed across six floors of a Grade II-listed mansion that previously served as a synagogue, cultural centre and Galvanic Hospital. The centre, named Ibraaz and funded by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, was founded by Lina Lazaar. She emphasizes the need to protect freedom of expression and to create private spaces for difficult conversations. Ibraaz will host talks, performances, film screenings and exhibitions and aims to engage London's diasporic community from a North African, Arab and Muslim-adjacent perspective.
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