Ticket Price: FREE
JR has the world’s largest museum: the world.He displays his work however he wants on streets and in alleys, making every pedestrian a visitor to his museum. JR blends art with action in his quest to discover the definitions of promises, freedom, identity and life.
In 2006 JR completed his Portrait of a Generation, consisting of huge posters of ‘hoodies’ from the housing estates in the suburbs of Paris, which he put up in middle-class areas of the city. After the Parisian municipal government agreed to let JR wrap their headquarters up for a piece, they transformed his illegal work into a show of orthodoxy with an official seal.
The following year, JR and Marco finished their joint piece, Face 2 Face, quite possibly the largest illegal exhibition of photography in history. JR created huge posters of Israeli and Palestinian faces set opposite one another and put them up in eight Israeli-Palestinian cities divided by the West Bank wall. Some experts claimed the project was impossible – but JR managed it.
In 2008, JR inaugurated an international touring exhibition called Women in which he focused on the idea that issues of female dignity can often become flashpoints in social conflict. JR’s project may not have changed the world but just for an instant, the laughter of those involved was an excellent pick-me-up. One result of the exhibition was the film Women Are Heroes, which went on to join the official selection for the critics’ week at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.