This exhibition uses the materials of the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift as an entry point for considering methods of display of clothing that recognize dress as an embodied practice. A youth movement founded in 1920, the Kibbo Kift employed dress as part of their mission to design a new world. Understanding that the members of the Kibbo Kift saw their bodies as important sites for engaging in their utopian beliefs, the exhibition generates new interpretations of clothing display that minimizes the temporal and experiential distance between the historicized wearer and the contemporary visitor. Rather than present the archival materials of the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift in a way that further historicizes the group, Uniforms for Utopia proposes an
expansion of the Kibbo Kift’s archive by incorporating a contemporary response to their garments. These contemporary responses are achieved in two ways: by inviting participants in the exhibition to engage with the reconstructions of the garments, and by including reinterpretations of the garments made by two invited artists: nènè myriam konaté and Sonia Prancho.