JR: A Retrospective
The large-scale projects of French artist JR have made him one of the most innovative representatives of contemporary art on the planet. A retrospective at Museum Frieder Burda explores his overall artistic development.
Living and working in Paris and New York, the true identity of JR remains unknown, yet he has initiated projects in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. Known for embedding a strong social message into his large-scale black and white photographs. Applied to walls as monumental posters in a similar form to street art, JR combines urban architecture with the culture and historical contexts specific to the region. His works raise questions about freedom and identity and in how far art can change people’s perception of themselves and their environment. JR’s most important motivation is interaction with other people.
“My art does not change the world, but I hope it inspires people to change how they look at the world and at other people,” says JR.
An exhibition at the Museum Frieder Burda, Germany provides a retrospective look into JR’s overall artistic development. Using photographs and videos by the artist, it presents his early and ongoing projects. A selection of key projects are on display and include:
Portrait of a Generation
JR carried out his first large-scale project Portrait of a Generation in 2004. Following riots in the Paris suburbs, JR put up posters in these suburbs and middle-class districts of Paris featuring photographs he took of youths during the unrest. These images challenged questioned the social and media representation of this generation. After the first posters were quickly removed by the city cleaning service, the city government soon legalised the project.
Face 2 Face
In 2007, JR organised the largest illegal photography exhibition ever. He produced portraits in the Middle East of Israelis and Palestinians with the same professions. These images were posted on the walls of buildings in the settlements on both sides of the border, including at the border installations themselves. The message was clear: the hostile groups cannot be distinguished on the basis of their facial expression.
For Women are Heroes
In 2008 JR ventured into the Favela Morro da Providência in Rio de Janeiro with a bold plan in mind: he wanted to meet the residents and lend a face to those who play an essential role in society but who are the primary victims of war, crime, rape and political or religious fanatics: the women of the favela. He pasted wall-high black and white close-up images of the women’s eyes and faces all over the outside of the favela.
Wrinkles of the City
JR placed older people at the centre of this project, focusing on a generation who experienced how their cities were transformed during the 20th century. His project took him to Berlin where he interviewed elderly people, asking them about their memories. He then put up posters featuring photographs he had taken of them on walls in Berlin’s urban space. The striking faces and the wrinkles of those he portrayed stood for the chequered history, from World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the pain that the people of the city had gone through.
Unframed
Since 2009, JR has travelled far and wide with the Unframed project. For the first time in his career, he does not hang up his own pictures but works of known or unknown photographers. JR visited the residents of the working class neighbourhood Belle de Mai, France selected hundreds of photographs out of their photo albums, and subsequently posted a dozen of them in the district between the harbor and the main train station.
Within the scope of the exhibition at the Museum Frieder Burda, JR has brought Unframed to Baden-Baden, Germany. In the run-up to the exhibition, citizens of Baden-Baden were invited to participate and submit their own personal material. As a large-scale project in the city’s urban space, ‘Unframed Baden-Baden’ addresses German-French history and the friendship between the two countries.
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JR’s retrospective is on display at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, Germany until Sunday 29 June 2014.
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