French artist JR gives voice to the ordinary through colossal street art

JR's "Women Are Heroes, Action in Favela Morro da Providencia, Favela by day, Rio de Janeiro" (2008) Courtesy of JR-ART.NET

Anonymous French photographer's first-ever retrospective in Asia, "JR: Chronicles," unfolds at Lotte Museum of Art

By Park Han-sol

Where can you find French photographer JR's colossal black-and-white portraits of everyday people? On the walls, rooftops and bridges of countless cities ― and even at the U.S.-Mexico border at one point.

There's a reason why the elusive artist, who hides behind a pseudonym and a pair of sunglasses, claims to "own the largest gallery in the world."

Whether they be the faces of women pasted on the rooftops of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, monumental pairs of eyes sprawled across the exterior of moving trains in a Kenyan slum, or a 20-meter-tall Mexican toddler curiously peeking over the barrier wall that borders the U.S., his images of ordinary, nameless locals often occupy neighborhoods around the world that are rife with socio-political tension.

JR, the elusive French artist and photographer who hides behind a pseudonym and a pair of sunglasses, pastes his images of ordinary, nameless locals across neighborhoods around the world that are rife with socio-political tension. Courtesy of JR-ART.NET

His touring retrospective, "JR: Chronicles," mounted in Asia for the first time at the Lotte Museum of Art in southern Seoul, traces the evolution of his now-iconic public photography projects that aim to "connect people and create a mirror of society, a mirror of the city," the artist remarked during a recent press preview.

The Parisian artist's love affair with photography began around the age of 16 when he came across an old film camera left in the subway.

As a young graffitist working under the alias FACE 3, JR began documenting his own crafts, and later, his friends in action. He then pasted black-and-white photocopies of these images on walls throughout the city ― illegally, of course ― to organize what he called, "Expo 2 Rue," or sidewalk gallery.

"At that time, I didn't know that there were galleries or museums. I would just take over the street and exhibit my photography this way," he said.

Installation view of JR's "Portrait of Generation, Araba" (2004) at the heart of Paris / Courtesy of JR-ART.NET

In 2004, the photographer initiated his first major public project, "Portrait of a Generation," where he took close-up images of young residents in the Parisian "banlieues," or suburbs, of Montfermeil and Clichy-sous-Bois. The French term is typically associated with communities with low-income housing projects, high unemployment rates and a large population of ethnic minorities.

The portraits of the working-class immigrants confronting the camera and making silly faces were then enlarged and pasted throughout the heart of Paris, bringing their stigmatized existence to upscale neighborhoods where they would otherwise never be seen or heard.

By inviting the youth to "play the caricatures of themselves," the project gave them the means to determine how they were represented in publicly disseminated images and thus challenge media bias.

His photographs became laden with another meaning the next year when they turned into the backdrop of an intense three-week riot over youth unemployment and police harassment in the banlieues.

"I shot my project in 28 millimeter-lens, which forces you to be very close to (your subject), so that means you take it with trust ― compared to the long lens that at that time the media was using to capture the riots (from afar)," he noted.

Installation view of JR's "Face 2 Face" (2006-7) at the Lotte Museum of Art in southern Seoul / Courtesy of Lotte Museum of Art

Since then, JR's guerrilla portraits of those pushed to the margins have become a stimulating vehicle to reconnect people and change the way they see each other.

His "Face 2 Face," completed during a period of fierce strife in the Gaza Strip from 2006 to 2007, featured pairs of close-ups of Palestinians and Israelis who held the same jobs: taxi drivers, doctors, athletes, religious leaders, etc.

With his on-site collaborators, the artist installed these blown-up portraitures together on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the border wall, organizing what was considered the largest illegal photo exhibition ever at that time.

"It was fascinating to see that people couldn't recognize who was the hairdresser from Palestine and who was the hairdresser from Israel and so on," the photographer said. "Before, they would only see each other through the media and what it was reporting on the other. So, sometimes they would not necessarily have the right image of the person on the other side."

His images offered a glimpse of the common ground found between the two parties, albeit momentarily.

JR's "The Chronicles of New York City" (2019) / Courtesy of JR-ART.NET

JR's "The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America" (2018) / Courtesy of JR-ART.NET

As the Parisian artist's public photography projects continued to turn people's heads in all four corners of the globe, they began to expand both in terms of ambition and scale.

Inspired by the monumental frescoes of the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, JR started producing striking murals symbolically visualizing an entire city or community.

For "The Chronicles" series, he and his team would travel to Parisian suburbs, San Francisco and New York on a makeshift studio truck, spending months filming and interviewing thousands of residents from all walks of life one by one in front of a green screen. They would then stitch the individual images or videos together to create the imposing montage.

He characterized the whole process as "a giant puzzle that we do as we shoot it."

Among these photographic collages on display, the immediate attention-grabber is "The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America," featured on the cover of Time magazine in November 2018.

Through portraits of 245 faces, each with their own history ― families of shooting victims, gun rights activists, gun collectors, armed pastors, law enforcement officials and emergency room staff who regularly take bullets out of bodies of mass shooting victims ― the mural powerfully visualizes a wide spectrum of views on gun control in the U.S.

"I couldn't have those people in the same room because they do not agree with each other," JR said. "But when we presented it in museums across the United States, both sides would come to see themselves and then would also meet the people on the other side. So, it allowed a discussion between those two groups."

"Migrants, Mayra, Picnic Across the Border, Tecate, Mexico-U.S.A" (2017) Courtesy of JR-ART.NET

The artist continues his self-assigned mission to this day to utilize images as a platform to form connections and change perceptions.

His participatory project, "Inside Out," launched in 2011, invites anyone in the world to submit their self-portraits to his studio, which will then be printed and shipped back to them in the form of paper posters. These prints can be pasted everywhere, he said, to highlight a statement or issue within their community. In the span of a decade, more than 500,000 portraits have appeared in 149 countries worldwide.

In time for the Seoul show, JR has also created an anamorphic, illusionary work of photography inspired by the Han River.

"It has been very interesting to see the impact of art in tons of places and that's what I love doing," the 40-year-old said when speaking of his decades-long practice. "If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. It's just paper ― but if it works, it can have a tremendous impact."

"JR: Chronicles" runs through Aug. 6 at the Lotte Museum of Art.

JR's "Anamorphosis, Seoul" (2023), inspired by the Han River, has been produced in time for his exhibition at the Lotte Museum of Art. Courtesy of Lotte Museum of Art