Join us online on 4 February at 14:00 – 15:15 for A Right to Determine Value: Embedding Community Voices in the Development of Public Space, an in conversation with Ibrahim Mahama and Thomas Aquilina. This is the second in a series of Constellations ° Assemblies curated by UP Projects exploring spatial justice and the role that art and artists can play in advocating for more inclusive cities.
A Right to Determine Value will explore the artist's role in building cultural infrastructure in the absence of formal public space, enabling communities and young people to shape fertile environments for creativity, education and civic engagement.
Featuring artist Ibrahim Mahama as keynote speaker, followed by a conversation with Thomas Aquilina, Co-Director of Spatial Justice at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Aquilina will frame the event around his experience of embedding a human rights-based approach into public space both locally and globally; drawing on his 2025 essay, “Who’s right, what right, and where’s that right?”. Aquilina and Mahama will consider the framing of art as a basic human right and explore how Mahama's experimental approach towards regeneration, restitution and repatriation involves communities from the outset to inform future generations’ engagement with art practice.
Ibrahim Mahama will talk about the cultural and educational institutions he has established in Tamale, Northern Ghana, reinvesting the proceeds from his artwork sales into local infrastructure. Since 2019, Mahama has set up the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA); Red Clay, his large-scale studio complex open to the public; and Nkrumah Volini, a centre for cultural and artistic education. Mahama will also present Purple Hibiscus (2024), the public art project on the façade of the Barbican, London. 2000 square metres of large-scale pink and purple fabric panels were woven and sewn in collaboration with hundreds of craftspeople from Tamale. The work highlights the value Mahama places in co-creation and intergenerational knowledge exchange.
Through this conversation, we will explore how Mahama plays with architecture through his public commissions internationally and transforms abandoned buildings into cultural infrastructure in Tamale. His place-centred approach towards decolonisation creates regenerative economies and offers space for a new generation of artists and thinkers to emerge. This conversation will draw out the importance of community collaboration, and the necessity for making space for community voices within the development of public, cultural infrastructure.
UP Projects’ work has centred around community collaboration and engagement for over twenty years, curating artist led projects that endeavour to build trusting and empowering relationships with communities. A Right to Determine Value, continues a line of enquiry that explores how we navigate shifting hierarchies and authentically respond to the needs of communities, a topic explored in previous Constellations ° Assemblies including How can socially engaged practice inspire structural change? and Who are We Working For?
The event will be accessed via UP Projects’ digital participation space, The Hall, and will take place on Zoom.
To enable access to this high-quality programme, UP Projects operates a “Pay What You Can” ticketing policy for Assemblies, with a suggested donation of £5 per event. You can book by entering a minimum of £1.
Constellations ° Assemblies are curated by UP Projects and supported by Arts Council England.
Accessibility
Live captioning and British Sign Language interpretation will be available during all Constellations ° Assemblies. If you have any specific access needs, please email constellations@upprojects.com in advance of the event, and we will assist where possible. Alternative interpretation and access needs are generously supported by Arts Council England.
