Reverse Restitution: A Conversation with Ibrahim Mahama

The inauguration of Ibraaz’s permanent home at 93 Mortimer Street opens with Parliament of Ghosts (2017-ongoing) by Ghanian artist Ibrahim Mahama, a landmark installation that reimagines the museum as a living archive, reactivating histories, migration, and collective assembly for the present. Part of Mahama’s long-term research project, the work continues his practice of transforming reclaimed materials into ‘reverse restitution’.

In this conversation, Shuman Basar, the curator of this iteration of Parliament of Ghosts, speaks with Mahama about hauntings, justice, postcolonial timelines, and ‘the unfinished business of empire’.