Dillon
Jerry
Mugume
The work moves across sculptural installation, object design, jewellery, curatorial production, and institutional infrastructure — unified by a sustained inquiry into what materials carry, and what they can become.
Founder of DONNJERRY (2016). Co-Founder of The Institute for Hybrid Cultures, Basel (2025).
Sustained inquiry
Research that opens rather than closes — material cycles that continue to generate new form, never a finished archive.
Material inheritance
Weave patterns, craft knowledge, dye processes — transformed rather than preserved. Heritage as living practice.
Bridging
Building connections across institutional, geographic and cultural registers — infrastructure for genuine exchange.
Reed harvest, natural dye immersion, solar drying. Community-embedded craft research, Uganda. 2013 →
Italian leather artisan working on a DONNJERRY piece. Ugandan weave structures, shared authorship. 2016 →
A new material vernacular: woven structure as grammar for object-making. 2016 →
Plaster, recycled substrates, botanical forms, sculptural installation. 2018 →
Sessions — Chapter 1: Reading
A live research methodology experimenting with third spaces and the conditions of non-commercial cultural gathering. Chapter 1 took the form of reading — people gathered together in community, Basel, April 2026.
tihc.institute/sessions →TIHC Library
A mobile, relational knowledge infrastructure operating across partner nodes. An active, distinct programme — separate from the Archive.
TIHC Archive
A verified, research-led knowledge platform for artists, curators, institutions, and collections from the Global South, African diaspora, and queer practice. Not a directory. Not a marketplace. Infrastructure — built to last.
tihc.institute/archive →Fountain Talks
Moderator of the public programme at Africa Basel — dialogues with institutions from the African continent and diaspora. Speakers: Sixte Kakinda, Kwaku Opoku, Alexis Peskine, Helen Nzete. Podcast on Spotify.
Roots and Routes
Curator of the inaugural Africa Basel. Thematic programme on material inheritance, cultural transformation and diasporic belonging. Artists: Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Malika Sqalli, Clément Gbegno, Helen Nzete, Enoch Hammond.
Sculpture
Art Objects
Installation
Experimentation
Mat-weaving scaled into installation. Sculptural objects built from recycled substrates and botanical form. Material experimentation as inquiry — plaster, woven structure, organic geometry. A practice that treats the studio as a research space and the object as an open question.
Voice · The Curiously Dressed Gentleman · Onome Ekeh, Basel Art Week 2024 · vimeo →
Founded 2016. Three disciplines operating from the same material intelligence and artisan collaboration — each distinct, each necessary.
Fashion
Objects
Made-to-order and limited-edition fashion and handbags — built from the same material research, dye cycles and artisan collaboration that run through the whole practice. Objects that carry the logic of the craft they come from.
Identity
Packaging
End-to-end creative direction of all campaigns, lookbooks, packaging and visual identity for DONNJERRY. Concept, casting, location, art direction — building the visual grammar that runs across every object the brand makes.
Botanical
Forms
Jewellery as a distinct discipline — not accessory, not extension. Botanical forms, recycled substrates and plaster geometries. The Passiflora series began in 2023: organic structure translated into wearable object. Limited edition. Each piece made once.
Basel
Founded 2025 · tihc.institute
A Basel-based non-profit association investigating hybrid cultural forms at the intersection of art, nature, technology and society. Ethical frameworks for heritage representation. Building connections across institutions, practices and communities without borders or hierarchy.
Research & methodology
Long-term initiatives in cultural production, education and critical theory — transnational and diasporic contexts. Ongoing, never closed.
Programmes & collaborations
Public-facing and institutional programmes developed with artists, researchers and partner organisations.
Live research methodology
Experimenting with third spaces and the conditions of non-commercial cultural gathering. Chapter 1: Reading — Basel, April 2026.
tihc.institute/sessions →
Documentation infrastructure
Verified, research-led knowledge platform for artists, curators, institutions, and collections from the Global South, African diaspora, and queer practice. Infrastructure — built to last.
tihc.institute/archive →
Mobile knowledge infrastructure
A distinct programme — separate from the Archive. Operating across partner nodes. Active, relational, ongoing.
Co-Founder & Director — TIHC
The Institute for Hybrid Cultures · Basel · CHE-313.446.252
Founder & Creative Director — DONNJERRY
Fashion & objects · Creative direction · Jewellery. Paris · Uganda · Italy.
TIHC Sessions — Chapter 1: Reading
Live research methodology: experimenting with third spaces and conditions of non-commercial cultural gathering.
TIHC Archive — Director
Verified, research-led knowledge platform. tihc.institute/archive
TIHC Library
Mobile knowledge infrastructure across partner nodes.
Fountain Talks — Moderator
Africa Basel public programme and podcast.
Africa Basel — Roots and Routes · Curator
Inaugural edition. Artists: Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Malika Sqalli, Clément Gbegno, Helen Nzete, Enoch Hammond.
The Curiously Dressed Gentleman · Voice
Onome Ekeh · Basel Social Club · Basel Art Week 2024.
Mat-weaving — community-embedded field research
Uganda. Sustained collaboration with women artisan communities. Reed harvesting, solar drying, natural plant dye immersion.
Italian leather — cross-continental craft exchange
Ugandan weaving structures applied to Italian leather construction. Shared authorship.
Audience Academy — Locarno Film Festival
Selected fellow. Audience experience and representation.
BA in Development Economics
Practice-based research across Uganda, Italy, Laos, Thailand, France and Switzerland.