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A Photography Exhibition That Makes the Everyday Look a Little Different
Arifureru -凡- Mundanity
May 16, 2026
Behind The Scene is umu’s series introducing creative projects connected to Tokyo. This time, we take a look at “Arifureru -凡- Mundanity,” a group photography exhibition featuring nine creative teams from Japan and Indonesia. Traditional clothing made from cardboard appears in a Tokyo park, while children wear designer clothing inside their everyday homes. Rather than looking for special stages or extraordinary settings, the exhibition explores moments when familiar scenes begin to look a little different, through landscapes that exist as an extension of everyday life.
Held from May 16 to 17, 2026, at Urasando Garden in Shibuya, Tokyo, the group exhibition brought together nine creative teams from Japan and Indonesia. Taking the Japanese word “凡（ありふれる）”, meaning something ordinary or commonplace, as its starting point, the exhibition captures places where people’s lives unfold, including homes, street corners, parks and rooms shared with family.
The theme of “Arifureru -凡- Mundanity” is everyday life.
Traces of life left inside a home, familiar street corners, people passing through a park, and rooms where families spend time together. The settings of these works are not specially created spaces. They are places where people actually live and where time has accumulated.
Nine creative teams from Japan and Indonesia took part in the exhibition. Each set of photographs looks closely at the layers of culture, memories and emotions that exist within ordinary scenes.
For example, Shadeeqa and Nymphmawar took inspiration from the kebaya, a traditional garment from Indonesia and Malaysia, and created their own clothing from cardboard. The people wearing these outfits stand in an unassuming Tokyo park. The people passing through the frame and the everyday urban landscape reflect what it feels like to live away from one’s home and place of origin.
In the work of Farid Renais Ghimas, his nieces and nephews wear designer clothing inside the home where they normally spend their time. Fashion temporarily enters the space, but the stickers, furniture, study charts and well-used details of the room remain unchanged. Rather than creating a strong contrast between the special clothing and the familiar home, the two are allowed to naturally coexist within the same space.
“Arifureru” comes from the Japanese word “凡,” referring to things that are ordinary or commonplace. The exhibition reconsiders what this word represents, not as something boring or unremarkable, but as a way of looking at the world.
With participants coming from different cultural backgrounds in Japan and Indonesia, each team captures everyday life from its own perspective. What emerges is not only a reflection of the differences between countries and cultures, but also a shared feeling that can arise when we catch a glimpse into someone else’s life.
Even in moments when it seems like nothing is happening, traces of someone’s memories, habits and emotions remain.
“Arifureru -凡- Mundanity” is an exhibition that invites us to look again at the everyday, and see something we may have overlooked in a slightly different way.
