Discarded clothing, fishing nets and changing seas became points of connection between Ghana and Sicily in Tides of Humanity, an exhibition that brought together the practices of Ghanaian textile artist and civil engineer Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku and Sicilian photographer Francesco Bellina.

Curated by Rosa Cascone, the exhibition examined climate change, marine degradation, waste, migration and the environmental consequences of global consumption at the Nubuke Foundation in Accra from 11 to 26 September 2026.

Bringing together Bellina’s photography and Tieku’s textile-based installation, Tides of Humanity connected two coastal regions separated by geography but linked by the movement of people, materials and environmental change.

Two Shores, Connected by the Sea

For Bellina, the connection between Ghana and Sicily is rooted in both family and experience.

Born in Trapani, a Sicilian fishing community, Bellina grew up around a fishing tradition that later became central to his photographic practice. His work has focused on fishing communities and their relationship with the sea, documenting both everyday life and the environmental changes affecting coastal livelihoods.

His connection with Ghana developed while he was living in Palermo, where he became familiar with the Ghanaian community there. He first travelled to Ghana in 2019 and later spent time in coastal communities, including Jamestown, documenting fishermen and residents. He now works between Palermo and Accra.

The similarities he encountered between fishing communities in Ghana and Sicily became an important point of departure for his contribution to the exhibition.

Bellina has documented changes in marine environments, including rising sea temperatures, declining fish stocks and the appearance of species from other marine ecosystems. For communities whose livelihoods depend on fishing, these changes are not distant environmental statistics. They affect work, food and everyday life.

His installation at the Nubuke Foundation included photographs connected to his family’s fishing history, including images of relatives involved in fishing and a fishing net from his family in Trapani. Sicilian religious and cultural references were brought into dialogue with Ghanaian symbolism, extending the exhibition’s interest in the cultural life that develops around the sea.

What Happens to Clothes After They Are Discarded?

Tieku approaches environmental change through a different material: clothing.

For Tides of Humanity, he used second-hand garments collected from Kantamanto Market, beaches and landfills. The work forms part of his long-term project How to Heal a Broken World, which began in 2023 and is planned to continue until 2068.

The project uses textile archiving, material experimentation and public interventions to examine waste, identity, consumerism, climate change and sustainability.

For Tieku, clothing carries traces of the people and places through which it moves. Textiles can hold identity, culture and personal experience, even as garments pass from one owner or location to another.

Discarding a garment does not necessarily end that journey.

In Ghana, clothing that can no longer be sold or reused can enter a wider waste system, eventually appearing in dumping areas, landfills, gutters and along the coastline. Tieku’s practice focuses attention on this afterlife of clothing and the systems that produce it.

Kantamanto and the Global Clothing Trade

Kantamanto Market in Accra sits at the centre of Ghana’s second-hand clothing economy and is closely connected to the global trade in used garments.

According to The Or Foundation, around 15 million garments arrive at Kantamanto every week, while an estimated 40 percent of the average bale leaves the market as waste.

The market therefore functions as more than a site of exchange. It is also a place where the material consequences of global consumption become visible through what remains after garments lose their commercial value.

The Or Foundation’s Stop Waste Colonialism campaign describes this movement of discarded clothing as part of a wider system in which environmental burdens associated with consumption in wealthier countries are transferred to communities in the Global South.

Tieku responds to this system by collecting garments from Kantamanto, beaches and landfills and returning them to the centre of the artwork.

The clothing becomes evidence of a much larger network of production, consumption and disposal.

Clothing as a Record of Global Consumption

Tieku does not treat discarded clothing simply as material to be removed. He approaches it as a record of movement.

A garment may be produced in one country, purchased and worn in another, donated or resold elsewhere, and eventually arrive in Ghana through the second-hand clothing trade. By the time it reaches a landfill or beach, its original function may have disappeared, but its material history remains.

Through collecting and reworking these garments, Tieku examines what they reveal about global consumption and the unequal distribution of its environmental consequences.

This approach runs throughout How to Heal a Broken World, where textile waste becomes material for research, archiving and public intervention. The project has included installations and billboard interventions made from second-hand clothing, with plans for the work to extend beyond Ghana.

From Environmental Damage to Environmental Education

Bellina’s practice similarly moves beyond documenting environmental problems.

For him, photography and art can contribute to public understanding of environmental responsibility by connecting everyday choices to larger ecological consequences.

His work in Palermo has included photography and video addressing local waste problems. In Ghana, his practice has developed through relationships with communities rather than observation from a distance.

That emphasis on environmental education provides another connection between the two artists. Both use images and materials to make systems that can otherwise remain abstract more visible.

A Ghana–Sicily Exchange

Tides of Humanity also reflects a longer relationship between Ghana and Sicily shaped by migration and cultural exchange.

Bellina’s first connection with Ghana came through Ghanaian communities in Palermo. His subsequent work in Ghana has taken him to places including Kumasi, Takoradi and Koforidua, as well as coastal communities where he has documented fishing and everyday life.

The exhibition brings these experiences together through the sea.

The Mediterranean and the Gulf of Guinea are separated by thousands of kilometres, yet the communities living around them encounter environmental pressures increasingly shaped by global systems.

Bellina has expressed an interest in strengthening cultural relationships between Ghana and Sicily, including creating opportunities for Ghanaian artists to exhibit their work in Sicily. He has also discussed educational programmes and classes for young people in Ghana.

Beyond the Exhibition

Bellina’s environmental work in Ghana is expected to continue, including his interest in the effects of illegal mining on communities and health, alongside plans for educational programmes and further cultural exchange between Ghana and Sicily.

Tieku’s How to Heal a Broken World continues as a long-term investigation into textile waste, identity, consumerism, climate change and sustainability.

The artists begin from different materials but arrive at related questions. Bellina follows fishing communities, the sea and the environmental changes affecting coastal life. Tieku follows discarded clothing through the systems that move garments from global markets to Ghanaian communities and, eventually, into the waste stream.

Together, their practices show that waste and environmental damage rarely remain within the borders where they originate. From the fishing communities of Trapani and Jamestown to the discarded garments of Kantamanto, Tides of Humanity connects two shores through the movement of people, materials and environmental consequences.