Youth Living in Kibera, One of Africa's Largest Urban Slums, Exhibit in Tokyo as 'Subjects Who Tell Their Own Stories'

As part of the 'CRAWL' program for art workers at the art center BUG (operated by Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.), a project by Migi Sakata, Co-CEO of Kotatsu Co., Ltd. and Representative Director of the NPO Shift Eighty, has been selected. The exhibition, titled 'Viewing the World from Kibera "Slum": From Being Told to Telling Our Own Stories,' will open on April 25, 2026.

In this exhibition, young people living in Kibera, a massive slum in Nairobi, Kenya, will challenge the image of the slum as a 'subject being told about' and stand up as 'subjects who tell their own stories' through photos and videos they have captured themselves.

When asked about their future dreams, many of these young people answer 'journalist,' stemming from their experience of being marginalized by society and their strong will to carve out a future despite adversity. Triggered by donated cameras and technical guidance from professional photographers and filmmakers, they began documenting their lives, joys, sorrows, work, and hopes. This is not merely a record, but the very process of acquiring the 'power to speak,' and an act of redefining the image of the 'slum'—which has been unilaterally consumed by external perspectives—by their own hands.

The exhibition will feature over 100 works, including video commentaries by the artists themselves. During the exhibition, there will be opportunities for 'dialogue,' such as allowing visitors to ask questions to the youth in Kibera and receive replies later, creating a space for a 'reciprocal exchange of stories' between the subjects and the audience. By bringing the perspective of a Kenyan slum, far removed from the center of Tokyo, into the white cube of BUG, this is an attempt to re-examine the fundamental power and joy of 'expression.'

Highlights

1. Rediscovery from Labeled Landscapes

The word 'slum' may evoke stereotypes of poverty, crime, and hopelessness for many. However, within the places lumped together by that term, there are diverse moments of human activity, joy, and pride. In this exhibition, artists born and raised in Kibera express daily scenes and stories they wish to convey from their own perspectives. Some works even include scripts written by the artists themselves.

Kibera is a globally known massive urban slum, and while it has been the subject of creative activities by famous international artists, this exhibition focuses on the residents themselves becoming the subjects who tell their own stories, rather than treating Kibera as a 'material' or 'stage.' It is an attempt to re-examine landscapes that have been told through external gazes, through expression from the inside.

2. The Brilliance of Expression Born Within Constraints

Many of the exhibiting artists do not own their own cameras or computers, creating their work with equipment rented with limited personal funds and under restricted data communication limits. They often lack storage for high-resolution data and do not have an environment where they can easily save many high-resolution works. Therefore, some exhibited works may show differences in image quality or editing. However, these are not due to a lack of individual skill or motivation, but rather differences in production conditions such as available equipment, software, and communication environments.