Tracing Emerging Ecologies

The urban-rural ecologies of Tamale are rapidly evolving due to the city´s growth and the ever more extreme manifestation of its seasonal climates. Tamale’s vegetation, landscapes, and patterns of co-habitation are adapting, revolting and changing. Tracing Tamale through an ecological, multi-species, more-than-human lens allows for new ways of understanding change in the predominantly agricultural setting of northern Ghana.

Over the past two years, the architects and photographers Baerbel Mueller, Eric Gyamfi, Juergen Strohmayer, and Nii Obodai have spent time in Tamale, together and individually, to observe, identify, trace and discuss some of the city´s emerging ecologies. Tracing Emerging Ecologies is a work of collaborative research divided up into four individual parts. Using techniques ranging from the machine visions of aerial drones, to the consciously slow and physical processes of analog photography, to the pixelated vantages of personal narrations on Tamale’s territories, to the chemical translation of 1:1 living material itself: Tracing Emerging Ecologies explores the emergence of new ecological realities. The ambition of this project is to make processes of urban transformation visible and reveal narratives that will contribute meaningfully to the ongoing contestations of the city. The resulting exhibition in Tamale’s center invites engagement and speculation by its citizens.

Works by Baerbel Mueller, Eric Gyamfi, Juergen Strohmayer, and Nii Obodai
Hosted by Nuku Studio: Centre for Photographic Research and Practice, Tamale, Ghana
Curation & exhibition design by Baerbel Mueller and Juergen Strohmayer

Venue: Nuku Studio, Old Printing Press, Tamale, Ghana
Duration: Nov 12, 2022 - Feb 15, 2023

Supported by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport of the Republic of Austria, Nuku Studio, SCCA Tamale, and the artists.

Exhibition production by GGIDISU.studio

Images Credits
Eric Gyamfi 1, 3, 4
Juergen Strohmayer 6
Baerbel Mueller 2, 3, 6
Amelie Koerbs 5