Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle turns trash into wearble art

Kris Pannecoucke portrayed the street artists of the Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle collective in Kinshasa, Congo. These artists work with the material they find in the mountains of garbage that fill the streets of Kinshasa. 

They respond to current events with their artworks. Shaka Fumu Kabaka crafted his best-known work, Six Days of Tears, from remains of plastic dolls he found on the street, in memory of the June 2000 massacre in his hometown of Kisangani, where Ugandan and Rwandan militias had clashed. “Every time I saw a broken doll, I was reminded of what happened on the streets of Kisangani.”
They sell their work themselves in the most literal sense of the word, by dressing themselves with it. Their art is interactive: the makers get help from their audience when putting it on and taking it off.

The artist collective Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle consists of about twenty artists, which is active in the streets of Kinshasa, capital of Congo, formerly Zaire. Dozens of spectacular walking artworks from the collective were captured by Belgian photographer Kris Pannecoucke.

All of Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle's costumes can be seen annually in KinAct, a street festival that moves through various neighborhoods of Kinshasa in August. 

Check out the article in The Guardian

www.krispannecoucke.com