On the Other Side of Languish exhibition by Reginald Sylvester II. Debut exhibition of the Limbo Museum in Ghana, West Africa. Image Courtesy of Limbo Museum
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https://www.archdaily.com/1035953/limbo-museum-opens-its-debut-exhibition-within-an-unfinished-brutalist-building-in-ghana-west-africa
The Limbo Museum is a new institution dedicated to architecture, art, and design based in Ghana, West Africa. The museum challenges the concept of the ruin, operating from a formerly abandoned Brutalist estate that currently conveys the image of an unfinished building. The project was founded by Limbo Accra, a spatial design and research-based practice established in 2018 by Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip, dedicated to “unlocking the potential of unfinished buildings across West Africa and beyond.” On October 31, 2025, the museum opened its first public exhibition, On the Other Side of Languish by Reginald Sylvester II, developed through the institution’s visiting artist residency program.
On the Other Side of Languish exhibition by Reginald Sylvester II. Debut exhibition of the Limbo Museum in Ghana, West Africa. Image Courtesy of Limbo MuseumThe work of Limbo Accra is rooted in experimentation with the repair and transformation of unfinished building projects in West African cities. The Limbo Museum operates within the unfinished concrete shell of a Brutalist building, transforming an in-between space into a living laboratory for art, architecture, design, and experimental media. The studio’s operating model challenges conventional ideas of institutional form and function, embracing incompleteness as both a curatorial and architectural principle.
On the Other Side of Languish exhibition by Reginald Sylvester II. Debut exhibition of the Limbo Museum in Ghana, West Africa. Image Courtesy of Limbo Museum
On the Other Side of Languish exhibition by Reginald Sylvester II. Debut exhibition of the Limbo Museum in Ghana, West Africa. Image Courtesy of Limbo Museum
Developed in partnership with Gallery 1957, a contemporary art gallery, the Limbo Museum residency program invites artists, architects, and thinkers to engage with Africa’s evolving spatial and material landscapes. For this inaugural edition, curated by Diallo Simon-Ponte, Reginald Sylvester II presents 19 large-scale sculptures and seven paintings created entirely on-site. The artist’s practice is known for its abstract and materially experimental approach, exploring the industrial and spiritual histories of steel, rubber, and tarp. The display centers on the concept of transformation, suggesting that it is “not a fixed event but a continuous act of becoming, a wrestle with matter, meaning, and grace.”
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On the Other Side of Languish debuts nineteen sculptures and seven paintings, aiming to trace the space between spiritual surrender and material resistance. Working across painting and sculpture, the artist “approaches abstraction as a language of endurance formed through gesture, rupture, and release.” The exhibition unfolds within the unfinished architecture of the Limbo Museum, where raw concrete, light, and silence shape an encounter with the artworks. Presented as part of Gallery 1957’s Accra Cultural Week, the exhibition reflects a shared commitment to experimental exhibition-making and cross-continental dialogue.
On the Other Side of Languish exhibition by Reginald Sylvester II. Debut exhibition of the Limbo Museum in Ghana, West Africa. Image Courtesy of Limbo Museum
On the Other Side of Languish exhibition by Reginald Sylvester II. Debut exhibition of the Limbo Museum in Ghana, West Africa. Image Courtesy of Limbo Museum
In related news, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Cairo has opened to the public, completing a project that has been in development for more than two decades. The Studio Museum in Harlem, designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, is preparing to open its new purpose-built home on November 15 with a Community Day celebration. The Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (Suzhou MoCA), designed by BIG, is nearing completion along the Jinji Lake waterfront in Suzhou, China. Meanwhile, Snøhetta has been selected to design the Qiantang Bay Art Museum, a new cultural landmark within the Qiantang Bay Future Headquarters development in the Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou, China.