JR (artist)
Encyclopedia
JR is the name of a photographer and artist whose identity is unconfirmed. He has described himself as a "photograffeur", he flyposts large black-and-white photographic images in public locations in a manner which is similar to the appropriation of the built environment by the graffiti artist. He states that the street is "the largest art gallery in the world." He started out on the streets of Paris. JR's work "often challenges widely held preconceptions and the reductive images propagated by advertising and the media."
JR's work combines art and action and deals with commitment, freedom, identity and limits. He has been introduced by Fabrice Bousteau as: "the one we already call the Cartier-Bresson
of the 21st century". On October 20, 2010, JR won the TED prize for 2011. "The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, 'One Wish to Change the World.' Designed to leverage the TED community's exceptional array of talent and resources, the Prize leads to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact."
, JR and his friends began to document the act of his graffiti painting. At 17, he began applying photocopies of these photographs to outdoor walls.
JR later travelled throughout Europe to meet the people whose mode of artistic expression involved the use of outdoor walls. Then, he began wondering about the vertical limits, the walls and the façades that structure cities. After observing the people he met and listening to their message, JR pasted their portraits up in the streets and basements and on the roof tops of Paris.
Between 2004 and 2006, JR created Portraits of a Generation, portraits of young people from the housing projects around Paris that he exhibited in huge format. This illegal project became official when the City of Paris put JR’s photos up on buildings. At the beginning of his projects, JR wanted to bring art into the street: "In the street, we reach people who never go to museums."
In 2007, with Marco, JR put up enormous photos of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities on either side of the Separation Barrier. Upon his return to Paris, he pasted these portraits up in the capital. For the artist, this artistic act is first and foremost a human project: "The heroes of the project are all those who, on both sides of the wall, allowed me to paste the portraits on their houses."
In 2008, JR undertook an international tour for Women Are Heroes, a project in which he highlights the dignity of women who are often targets during conflicts.
JR calls himself an "urban artivist", he creates pervasive art that he puts up on the buildings in the Paris area projects, on the walls of the Middle East, on the broken bridges of Africa or in the favelas of Brazil. During the pasting phase, community members take part in the artistic process. In Brazil, for example, children became artists for a week. In these artistic acts, no scene separates the actors from the spectators.
After having exhibited in the cities from which JR’s subjects came, the photos traveled from New York to Berlin, Amsterdam to Paris As JR remains anonymous and does not frame his huge portraits, he leaves a space for an encounter between a subject/protagonist and a passerby/interpreter, and this is the essence of his work.
stated: "JR is the most ambitious street artist working." The newspaper le Monde
has described his work as "revealing humanity."
In 2011, he received a prize from TED
for his work.
The film Faces, directed by Gerard Maximin, about this artistic undertaking carried out in the Middle East by JR and Marco has won numerous prizes.
For JR, these older people are the living memory of a city changing faster than they themselves age. For him, every one of their wrinkles and each day that goes by are inscribed in the buildings and in the streets of old Cartagena that provided JR with a heterogeneous architecture.
In 2010, The Wrinkles of the City project reached Shanghai, China, as part of the Biennial at The Shanghai Art Museum.
This first film was part of the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival
in 2010. It was programmed in during La Semaine de la Critique (International Critics’ Week), and competed for the Golden Camera award. In May 2010, JR was invited to present his film on Le Grand Journal
on Canal+
in Cannes during the festival.
prize. The prize of US$100,000 will be used to grant JR a "wish", which he has stated he would use to create a new project.
Prizes attributed to the film Faces by Gerard Maximin on the Face2Face project by JR and Marco:
JR's work combines art and action and deals with commitment, freedom, identity and limits. He has been introduced by Fabrice Bousteau as: "the one we already call the Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography...
of the 21st century". On October 20, 2010, JR won the TED prize for 2011. "The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, 'One Wish to Change the World.' Designed to leverage the TED community's exceptional array of talent and resources, the Prize leads to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact."
Life and career
JR began his career as a teenage graffiti artist who was by his own admission not interested in changing the world, but in making his mark on public space and society. His graffiti often targeted precarious places like rooftops and subway trains, and he deeply enjoyed the adventure of going to and painting in these spaces. After finding a camera in the Paris MetroParis Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...
, JR and his friends began to document the act of his graffiti painting. At 17, he began applying photocopies of these photographs to outdoor walls.
JR later travelled throughout Europe to meet the people whose mode of artistic expression involved the use of outdoor walls. Then, he began wondering about the vertical limits, the walls and the façades that structure cities. After observing the people he met and listening to their message, JR pasted their portraits up in the streets and basements and on the roof tops of Paris.
Between 2004 and 2006, JR created Portraits of a Generation, portraits of young people from the housing projects around Paris that he exhibited in huge format. This illegal project became official when the City of Paris put JR’s photos up on buildings. At the beginning of his projects, JR wanted to bring art into the street: "In the street, we reach people who never go to museums."
In 2007, with Marco, JR put up enormous photos of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities on either side of the Separation Barrier. Upon his return to Paris, he pasted these portraits up in the capital. For the artist, this artistic act is first and foremost a human project: "The heroes of the project are all those who, on both sides of the wall, allowed me to paste the portraits on their houses."
In 2008, JR undertook an international tour for Women Are Heroes, a project in which he highlights the dignity of women who are often targets during conflicts.
JR calls himself an "urban artivist", he creates pervasive art that he puts up on the buildings in the Paris area projects, on the walls of the Middle East, on the broken bridges of Africa or in the favelas of Brazil. During the pasting phase, community members take part in the artistic process. In Brazil, for example, children became artists for a week. In these artistic acts, no scene separates the actors from the spectators.
After having exhibited in the cities from which JR’s subjects came, the photos traveled from New York to Berlin, Amsterdam to Paris As JR remains anonymous and does not frame his huge portraits, he leaves a space for an encounter between a subject/protagonist and a passerby/interpreter, and this is the essence of his work.
Critical reception
In 2010, during a radio program in San Diego, California, artist Shepard FaireyShepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His...
stated: "JR is the most ambitious street artist working." The newspaper le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
has described his work as "revealing humanity."
In 2011, he received a prize from TED
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
for his work.
28 Millimetres
JR considers himself as "neither a street artist nor a photographer". To carry out his projects, he uses photography but also video, prints on paper or tarpaulins, urban spaces, books and especially social links. JR noted "I would like to bring art to improbable places, create projects so huge with the community that they are forced to ask themselves questions. I want to try to create images of hot spots such as the Middle East or Brazil that offer different points of view from the ones we see in the worldwide media which are often caricatures."Portraits of a Generation
The Portraits of a Generation project constitutes the first stage of the 28mm project. After the first unauthorized exhibit on the walls of the Cité des Bosquets housing project, JR returned and set himself up of this housing project and the neighbouring one, the Cité de la Forestière, both in the epicenter of the 2005 riots in the French suburbs. The first portraits were rapidly exhibited on the walls of the last popular neighbourhoods of the capital, in the east of Paris. These photos provoked the passerby in as much as they questioned the social and media representation of a whole generation that for some is only to be seen relegated to the outskirts of the capital.Face2Face
The Face2Face project tried to show that beyond what separates them, Israelis and Palestinians are enough alike to be able to understand one another. Israeli and Palestinian men and women who have the same jobs accepted to laugh or cry, to scream or pull faces in front of JR’s lense. The portraits created were pasted up face to face, in monumental format on either side of the Separation Wall and in several surrounding towns. JR photographed and Marco wrote, together succeeding in creating the largest unauthorized 20 urban art exhibit in the world., la plus grande exposition d'art urbain au monde. The project’s goal was to show through images that art and laughter combined can break down prejudice.The film Faces, directed by Gerard Maximin, about this artistic undertaking carried out in the Middle East by JR and Marco has won numerous prizes.
Women are Heroes
For this project, JR slipped into fantasmatic places, the ones you see on TV when there is violence, the ones you might go close to but never enter and that you will not find on any tourist guidebook tour. Women are Heroes introduces women who sometimes look death in the face, who go from laughter to tears, who are generous, have nothing and yet share, who have had a painful past and long to build a happy future. In seeking what is common in their gaze, JR tried to get closer to what is universal: the human being. This project allowed him to keep the promise he made to these women: faire voyager leur histoire.Los Surcos de la Ciudad
The Los Surcos de la Ciudad project (The Wrinkles of the City) is based on the encounter between JR, the city of Cartagena, Spain, and its oldest inhabitants who are taken as the memory incarnate of the city, marked by the scars of its history, economic expansion and socio-cultural mutations. While meeting and photographing the elderly, JR imaged their wrinkles, the furrows of their brows, as the marks of time, the traces of their lives that are linked with the history of the city.For JR, these older people are the living memory of a city changing faster than they themselves age. For him, every one of their wrinkles and each day that goes by are inscribed in the buildings and in the streets of old Cartagena that provided JR with a heterogeneous architecture.
In 2010, The Wrinkles of the City project reached Shanghai, China, as part of the Biennial at The Shanghai Art Museum.
Feature film
JR transferred his Women Are Heroes project to the cinema in directing a feature film made up of images of the pasting phase of the installations and interviews of the women. Through this documentary film, the artist shows us how he installed the portraits of the women in urban spaces and the reactions of the inhabitants. He explains "this film gathers the images and the words of the women he met, the day to day flow of their lives and experiences to create, through art, a reality different from the one shown in the media".This first film was part of the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 2010. It was programmed in during La Semaine de la Critique (International Critics’ Week), and competed for the Golden Camera award. In May 2010, JR was invited to present his film on Le Grand Journal
Le Grand Journal (Canal+)
Le Grand Journal is a French nightly news and talk show airing every weekday evening on Canal+. Debuting on August 30, 2004, it was created and hosted by Michel Denisot. Originally a one-hour program, it expanded to two hours in 2005. Even though the show is broadcast on the premium channel Canal+,...
on Canal+
Canal+
Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted...
in Cannes during the festival.
2010
- Shanghaï, China – Contemporary Art Biennal.
- Shanghaï, China – 18 Gallery - Magda Danysz - 'The Wrinkles of the City'
- Vevey, Switzerland, Elysée Museum – Festival Images.
- San Diego, USA MCASD Museum of Contemporary Art.
- Los Angeles, USA, Pop up Gallery, Downtown.
- Düsseldorf, Germany, Springmann Gallery.
- Cannes Film Festival, May 18 – Projection of Women Are Heroes.
2009
- Paris, France, Ile Saint-Louis, Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Mairie du 4e arr.
- Arles, France, Les Rencontres de la Photographie.
- Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Casa França Brasil.
2008
- Tate Modern Museum, London, Great Britain.
- Cartagena, Spain.
- Musée Rath, Geneva.
- Brussels, Belgium.
2007
- Artcurial, Paris, France.
- Venice Biennale, Arsenal, Italy.
- Foam - Fotographiemuseum Amsterdam.
- Rencontres d'Arles, Photography, Arles, France.
- Artitud, Berlin, Germany.
Books by JR
- Women are Heroes by JR, Editions Alternatives, 2009.
- JR, Editions Pyramyd, 2009.
- JR / 28 Millimeters, a journey through JR's 28mm projects, Editions Lazarides Gallery, London, 2008.
- Face 2 Face, Editions Alternatives, 2007.
- Portraits of a Generation, Editions Alternatives, 2005.
- Carnet de Rue, Edition Free Presse, 2004.
Books featuring JR
- Beyond the Street, The 100 Leading Figures in Urban Art, Editions Gestalten, 2010.
- 60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future, Editions Thames & Huston, 2009.
- Qu’est ce que la photographie, Beaux Arts / TTM Editions, 2009.
- Outsiders, Art by People, Compiled by Steve Lazarides, Editions Century, 2008.
Prizes and awards
JR is the winner of the 2011 TEDTED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
prize. The prize of US$100,000 will be used to grant JR a "wish", which he has stated he would use to create a new project.
Prizes attributed to the film Faces by Gerard Maximin on the Face2Face project by JR and Marco:
| Festivals | Places | Country | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| IDFA | Amsterdam | Netherlands | Joris Ivens Selection |
| FIFDH | Geneva | Switzerland | Special Mention of the Jury |
| Open Doek Festival | Turnhout | Belgium | Documentary Film Award |
| International Festival of Muslim Films | Kazan | Russia | Documentary Film Award |
| Festival Europeen 4 Ecrans | Paris | France | 5 Nominations |
| FFDPM - Human Rights Festival | Montreal | Canada | Festival Prize |
| CMCA - Film Méditerannéen | Marseille | France | Art and Culture Award |
| CMCA - Film Méditerannean | Marseille | France | TV5 Monde Award |
| SCAM | Paris | France | SCAM Star |
External links
- JR official site
- Carnet2rue (Book of the street)
- Official project Site for 28 millimètres
- Women Are Heroes Official site for the film.
- Galerie Lazarides JR profile
- Galerie Springmann, Dusseldorf
- Galerie Magda Danysz, Shanghaï
- "The Lithographies" (work by JR) on the site Social Animals
- Le Blog Libération
- "The street art of JR" The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 7 March 2010. - "JR: The hippest street artist since Banksy" The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 15 February 2009. - In your face for peace! - Lens CultureLens CultureLens Culture is a subscription-free, online magazine of international contemporary photography, inclusive of all genres of photography. The magazine contains photo book reviews, essays, analysis and criticism about contemporary photography and culture...
, 7 July 2007. - "JR uses images to challenge stereotypes" The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, 23 October 2006.