Expo de Rue

When I say 'the city is the best gallery one could imagine', what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Graffiti, maybe?

French street artist JR

French artist JR moved on from graffiti to way bigger street art projects.
By bigger, I mean both size and scale.

His fabulous street art projects started with him finding an old camera in the Paris subway.
He started taking portraits of people, ordinary people like you and me, and printing the portraits into big posters.
Then pasting these huge posters on walls in the community. Illegally, sometimes.
The city is his canvas.

That is just a very brief summary of what he does.
But what he does is more than that. His projects are truly amazing.
A reason why the projects are amazing is that JR does not try too hard to spread his messages.
Yes, the portraits are big enough as statements.
But what I mean is that, by not explaining, he spreads the messages because of people's curiosity.

When he and his team were posting white paper on walls in India, locals don't know what they were doing.
They asked questions.

When the Face2Face project, the biggest illegal exhibition ever, have portraits of Palestinians and Israelis of similar backgrounds like occupation side by side, he left people thinking.
He asked, 'can you tell who is a Palestinian and who an Israeli?'
For your information, people couldn't tell the difference most of the time.

His Women are Heroes project was launched in many different countries in the world.
In places where conflicts are frequent, women are usually the first targeted victims.
His project reminds people the fact that women are heroes and pillars to the community, even when most of the time they are unseen.
Such a simple but great way to empower these women and make their stories heard, worldwide.

It is truly a beautiful thing to see men participating in the project to pay tribute to women.

Kenya

Rio de Janeiro

How fun! One of my favourites.

Earlier this year, in March, JR became the winner of the TED Prize 2011.
He launched his latest project Inside Out on the same day he made his TED Prize wish.
His TED Prize wish is to use art to change the world, inside out.
Now, you can send portraits to JR & his team via email, tell them your story and what you stand for.
In return, they will send you back the poster for you to post in public.

Wrinkles of the City--Shanghai
Another great work.

I have been telling people about JR & his projects, people ask me if I think his projects can really change the world.
Saying that posting portraits alone can change the world might be too ambitious.
But his projects are making statements and sending powerful messages, of all sorts. That's for sure.
Inspiring and motivating? Yes.
A beautiful way to celebrate humanity? (in terms of both art and the meaning it carries) Yes.

In the official video of the Inside Out project, a Tunisian boy who participated was interviewed.
He shared what the project means to him and what he said moved me.
He described the essence of the projects,

'It's not the same face but it's the same people.'

People, read about the works of JR & his team. Support them!
If their work doesn't make you smile, feeling more hopeful & motivated for a better world, I don't know what else does.

Love,
N