limbo museum: a space for artistic production and exhibition
The Limbo Museum has opened in Accra, Ghana, within the concrete frame of an unfinished brutalist structure that now serves as an active site for cultural production. Its launch aligns with Accra Cultural Week and introduces a Visiting Artist Program influenced by artistic practice as well as the architecture surrounding it.
The museum presents its debut exhibition, ‘On the Other Side of Languish’ by Reginald Sylvester II, created during an extended residency that placed the artist directly within the building’s raw shell. The program is organized with Gallery 1957 and curated by Diallo Simon-Ponte, who situates each new work in relation to the museum’s evolving spatial character.
the Limbo Museum opens in Accra within an unfinished brutalist structure | image © Erica Aryee
an unfinished ruin with a new life in ghana
The building that houses the Limbo Museum holds an unusual presence in Ghana’s cultural landscape. Its unfinished concrete frame rises with a sense of measured weight, marked by exposed surfaces, shifting light, and wide structural spans that open toward the sky. The absence of polished finishes allows every material gesture to register with clarity, from the rough aggregate underfoot to the rhythm of vertical supports that anchor each level.
This spatial condition shapes the experience of the exhibition. Sylvester’s steel gates and painted panels feel fused to the architecture, responding to its height, mass, and lingering traces of construction. The Limbo Museum uses this openness to form a dialogue between architecture and artistic production, allowing each intervention to influence how visitors read the building.
the Limbo Museum opens in Accra within an unfinished brutalist structure
a museum activated by the artwork of Reginald Sylvester II
Sylvester’s work engages directly with the unfinished surfaces of the Limbo Museum in Ghana. The gates, forged from steel and rubber, carry a strong physical charge, their scale mirroring the verticality of the structure. Installed within circulation zones and threshold-like passages, they guide movement through the building in a deliberate way, turning the museum’s skeletal layout into an active partner in the exhibition.
The paintings behave differently. Hung within recesses or against wide planes of concrete, they introduce shifts in color and density that register slowly as the viewer adapts to the subdued light. This pairing of heavy sculptural forms with quieter pictorial fields heightens the building’s layered character, revealing new patterns of shadow, texture, and proportion within the Limbo Museum.
Reginald Sylvester II debuts new work shaped by the building’s raw concrete frame
Simon-Ponte frames the museum as a place where the unfinished yields new modes of learning and production. The idea of a structure suspended in partial completion guides the approach to exhibitions, inviting artists to work inside a building that resists fixed definitions. This architectural stance aligns closely with Ghana’s growing commitment to contemporary culture and positions the museum as a responsive institution shaped by its environment.
Sylvester’s residency reflects this ambition. His time in Accra allowed him to assemble a body of work that grows from direct encounters with the city’s materials and makers. Steel fabrication yards, local workshops, and urban rhythms influence each piece, grounding the exhibition in the wider fabric of Accra.
the Visiting Artist Program launches in partnership with Gallery 1957
steel gates and paintings respond directly to the museum’s height and material presence
the architecture allows for movement through thresholds and open spans
Accra’s fabric and local artisans influence the scale and character of Sylvester’s works
project info:
name: Limbo Museum | @limbomuseum
location: Accra, Ghana
program: Visiting Artist Program in partnership with Gallery 1957
inaugural exhibition: On the Other Side of Languish by Reginald Sylvester II
curator: Diallo Simon-Ponte, Director of Exhibitions and Programs
opening: October 31st, 2025
photography: © Limbo Museum
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