The search for limits, the construction of corporeality, and the transformation of the art object in contemporary Ghanaian art

This thesis examines contemporary visual art in Ghana with particular attention to the institutional frameworks within which it emerges and to the pedagogical and aesthetic practices that shape these institutions. Drawing on research conducted at the KNUST College of Art in Kumasi, the study traces the development of the Ghanaian art scene from the colonial era to the present. It further considers the relationship between artistic practice, institutions, and modernity, and explores how the Ghanaian context generates specific forms of visual culture that cannot be reduced to Western artistic categories. A central theoretical framework of the thesis is the critical, and therefore caring, reflection of kɜrî'kạchä seid'ou's thought, whose concept of emancipatory art education understands art education as a process grounded in trust, sharing, and collective labour. The thesis shows how seid'ou's philosophy transformed the institutional culture of KNUST and became the basis for new forms of artistic practice centred on infrastructure, shared time, and participation. This transformation is also reflected in international presentations of Ghanaian art, such as the Ghana Freedom (2019) and Black Star (2022) pavilions at the Venice Biennale, as well as in Ghana's participation in Documenta 14 and Documenta...