{"id":259,"date":"2013-10-07T16:33:50","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T20:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/?p=259"},"modified":"2013-10-07T16:33:50","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T20:33:50","slug":"inside-out-the-art-of-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/inside-out-the-art-of-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Out, the Art of JR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pasting<\/a><\/p>\n

On September 20, 2013, after not hearing from me for a week, those on Facebook saw a post saying I\u2019d been to an art opening. The description, buried in the comments, said this was \u201ca global participatory art project with the potential to change the world.\u201d Heady stuff. So, on September 23, I headed downtown again, willing to participate and learn more.<\/p>\n

What I saw that Monday on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati and at Cincinnati\u2019s\u00a0 Contemporary Arts Center<\/a> (CAC)\u00a0three days before, was the lifting up of absolutely everyone, the celebration of our uniqueness, and the claiming of our power to be bigger than ourselves. And having fun doing it \u2014all with the simple tools of paper and glue!<\/p>\n

As a young man the French artist JR<\/a> and his friends challenged the law by writing their \"IMG_1294\"<\/a>names in out of the way places on the rooftops of Paris. After finding a 28 mm camera in the subway, JR photographed others doing this graffiti and and claimed these photographs as art by posting the images on walls around the city with frames drawn around them. This became his first public exhibition known as Expo2Rue (Sidewalk Gallery).<\/p>\n

The streets are the biggest art gallery in the world! JR\u2019s story has a lot to do with meeting people within the uniqueness of where they are. It began with his taking pictures and posting them in the poorer areas of Paris. During the violence of the 2005 riots in those areas, JR recognized some of his pictures still on the walls. \u201cI know those guys.\u201d So he then searched for and found some of them and again took pictures of them looking appropriately tough (although I think only one of them pulled it off, and as the project progressed, JR\u2019s humor becomes evident). JR then posted posters of these photos in \"IMG_1299\"<\/a>more bourgeois districts. He also gave them a voice. In the CAC exhibit these pictures are displayed with a statement from each individual photographed. As illegal art it sort of failed because Paris decided to wrap the prints around city hall. But that began JR\u2019s pattern of inspiring, making visible, and collaborating with the people he meets.<\/p>\n

From those roots JR has continued doing \u201cimpossible\u201d projects. The conflict between Palestine and Israel is intense. It would be impossible to wander and work across the lines, or so he was told. So of course in 2006 and 2007, he and a friend visited both sides of the conflict. What they realized is that everyone does the same jobs and they pretty much look the same too. And thus began the biggest illegal art exhibit in the world: Face 2 Face.\u00a0\"IMG_1304\"<\/a> With his subjects\u2019 permission JR took pictures of people such as cab drivers, lawyers, and cooks, and pasted one from each side next to each other in eight cities on both sides. \u201cWhat are you doing?,\u201d he was asked. \u201cArt,\u201d he answered. \u201cWho are they?\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re taxi drivers. One\u2019s Israeli, one\u00a0 Palestinian.\u201d \u201cWhy are you posting a picture of a Palestinian here!\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s art.\u201d [pause] \u201cDo you know which is which?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1284\"<\/a>A more recent example is the project Women Are Heroes, which is designed to underscore how women are the strength of a community, while men get the attention. Targeted for places with \u201czero museums,\u201d he visited areas such as one of the poorer slums of Nairobi and engaged with the people. \"IMG_1277\"<\/a>There pictures of women are printed on vinyl and are used to roof the homes where they live. This project was so popular they go back every year to expand it. Another destination was a drug cartel\u2019s \u201cfavela\u201d [slum] in Rio de Janeiro where three boys were \u201carrested\u201d by the army and taken to another favela where they were literally cut to pieces. After JR and his friend assured the drug lords that they were interested in only art and in the daily life of the favela, they interviewed and pasted pictures which were out of reach of the media since they didn\u2019t dare enter but \"IMG_1288\"<\/a>could see the prints in the distance. But one picture was not visible from a distance: a picture of the grandmother of one of the boys who was killed, which is pasted on the steps where the arrest happened and where other violence is common. JR also promised the women that he would share their stories with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

In 2011, JR was awarded the TED Prize<\/a> \u201cto change the world.\u201d TED Prize winners are given \u201c$1 million to inspire dreamers to think bigger about what\u2019s possible. The award offers support to build a project\u2019s core infrastructure quickly\u2014so that others can add their own collaborative action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon receiving this prize JR asked, \u201cCould art change the world?\u201d Those who hear his story are sure the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d For this challenge, he created the Inside Out <\/a>project. Inside Out offers to print poster sized head shots of those who want to make a statement on a cause they believe in. (\u201cYou take the picture, you paste it.\u201d) As part of this project photobooth trucks were built. People get \"IMG_1253\"<\/a>their picture taken in the small booth in the truck and the large poster is printed out the side for ready pasting.<\/p>\n

JR\u2019s team took the photobooth to Israel and Palestine where thousands participated, each signing a statement supporting a two-state solution for peace.\u00a0 On one side of the conflict they used the photos for protest signs carried in a huge march. On the other, people plastered the posters in the streets and wrapped buildings with them. In his 2012 report on the TED prize, JR said, \u201cDon\u2019t tell me they\u2019re not ready for peace out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s with the photobooth that I connected. It makes people visible. It\u2019s art \u201cwith no credit, no logo, no sponsoring.\u201d It started with people participating in the photobooth at the CAC exhibit opening, which is JR\u2019s first solo U.S. museum exhibition. Photos were pasted on the huge white walls of the museum forming a quilt of, well, people! The line was long that \"IMG_1256\"<\/a>night. I was curious about participation away from the museum so I showed up on Monday on Fountain Square in the center of downtown Cincinnati. There even the time spent the line was interesting. As helpers moved down the line with their iPads getting photo releases, they spent all the time needed to help those unsure about what was going on or the electronically challenged. \u201cYou should do this too, not just your friend. You\u2019re beautiful,\u201d they said, convincing onlookers to participate.<\/p>\n

Until a rain shower two weeks later (paper and glue are temporary!), I was part Fountain \"IMG_1258\"<\/a>Square. And am still on the projects website. And I\u2019m here, too.<\/p>\n

Every person is important and visible. Every person has a story. Everyone is part of something bigger than themselves, but unique in themselves at the same time. Inside Out.\"IMG_1270\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This looks like art. This sounds like changing the world<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_1307\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All photos by Spirit Moxie
\nfrom the top:
\nJR pasting during the CAC art opening
\nThe 28 mm camera JR found on a Paris subway
\n“Local urban youths” – Portrait of a Generation
\nTwo images from Face 2 Face
\nA video showing a train with eyes passing over the lower faces
\nThe rooftops of Kibera
\nA public stairway in Moro de Providencia
\nMe outside the photobooth truck
\nThe line
\nFountain Square (2 photos)
\nHidden art at CAC (JR still likes roofs….)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 20, 2013, after not hearing from me for a week, those on Facebook saw a post saying I\u2019d been to an art opening. The description, buried in the comments, said this was \u201ca global participatory art project with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asides"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DJHl-4b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}