Streetware X Mivumba
Exhibition Title: STREETWARE X MIVUMBA – Political Haute Couture
Exhibition Type: Collaborative Intercontinental Exhibition & Spatial Installation
Venue: Box 12, Galerie SLP at Bikini Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Dates: November 19th – November 29th, 2021
Key Collaborators: Photographer Jim Joël Nyakaana, Visual Artist Barbara Caveng, Fashion Designer Ruth Faith Nalule, Writer Beatrice Lamwaka, and Social Entrepreneur Kisitu Aloysius Musanyusa
Medium: Conceptual Studio Photography, Fine Art Large-Format Canvas Prints, and Upcycled Fashion Design
STREETWARE X MIVUMBA" is a radical, cross-continental collaborative project that tracks the global lifecycle, socio-economic trauma, and ecological impact of fast fashion. Staged at the prestigious Galerie SLP inside Bikini Berlin, this multidisciplinary exhibition brought Berlin’s consumer waste into direct confrontation with Uganda's parallel second-hand textile economy known locally in Kampala as mivumba.
The project began as an interrogation of the textile industry's supply chains, which ship discarded Western garments across oceans, effectively dismantling local African manufacturing markets. During an intensive creative session in Kampala in July 2021, photographer Jim Joël worked alongside designer Ruth Faith Nalule and artist Barbara Caveng to visually capture the clash of these global commodities.
Featured art works:
Inside the Bikini Berlin gallery space, Joel's evocative Ugandan studio photographs were mounted as large-format canvas prints. These images were displayed directly opposite photographs capturing a performance runway from the Berlin Fashion Week at Tempelhofer Feld, where models wore discarded clothing retrieved straight from the Berlin asphalt. Serving as the dramatic visual backdrop for Nalule’s "Political Haute Couture" garments such as her iconic Cage Dress constructed from traditional kitenge trapped in recycled tire mesh the installation functioned as a physical laboratory. By subverting institutional boundaries, the exhibition sparked uncomfortable public dialogues about consumer habits, colonial continuities, and the urgent necessity for ethical, sustainable clothing production.
Installation Views
