French artivist JR (artist/activist)
© JR

JR’s Monumental Portraits Spark Social Awareness

There are hundreds of motivational quotes about how one person can make a difference . . . or shake the world. One person can be a revolution.

We know it’s true. There are people throughout past and recent history who changed the world—sometimes for worse . . . but mostly for better.

French artivist (artist/activist) JR is one of those people with an instinct for the positive side of change—a street revolutionary, a shaker of the world—with a simple goal of better understanding what makes us human.

His photographic projects and documentaries spark connections in a diverse world and heighten social awareness—all with his driving force of respecting differences, seeking the best of humanness, and valuing unity.

Can art change the world? JR is living proof.

JR’s Wrinkles of the City project honored senior citizens in Shanghai, Cartegena,
Havana, Berlin, Istanbul, and Los Angeles.
© JR

For People To “See” and “To Be Seen”

Although JR prefers to remain relatively anonymous (JR stands for Jean-René . . . no last name), his work has been recognizable from the start.

He is unique—from the tag he used as a defiant teenage graffiti artist (Face 3) in the early 2000’s to his first “exhibitions” pasted on the public walls of Paris and the banlieue with spray painted frames, to the now famous world-sized “pastings” of black-and-white photos on buildings, rooftops, bridges, cargo containers, trucks, and trains.

A train travels through the Kenya countryside, with the all-seeing eyes of local women—
a vision toward the future.
© JR

The work is not about him. It is about giving people their moment to be seen . . . to be better understood, especially when they have often been overlooked or marginalized. Women. Prisoners. Elders. War Victims. Immigrants. And just ordinary people who feel invisible.

JR started as a graffiti artist, making his presence known on illegal concrete and metal canvases (walls, buildings, and metro cars) throughout the city. His life changed one day when he found a camera left behind on the metro.

He then became what he called a photograffeur (photographer and graffiti artist), traveling with his street artist friends and capturing their fleeting adventures in the Paris area underground, alleys, and rooftops. He showed us what it was like to surreptitiously paint and run.

The acrobatic adventures of a street artist
© JR

His first “exhibitions” of this work included photocopies of the images, with spray painted frames on walls and buildings so that people would be confronted by the images in this outdoor (albeit illegal) gallery—free for everyone.

Mon expo à moi (My own exhibit)
JR’s outdoor gallery, free for everyone
© JR

His initial documentary work came with the 2005 riots in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. He photographed the participants who were protesting what they believed to be police harassment/brutality in the poorer housing estates and made huge photos to be pasted around Paris and the suburb cities—so that passers-by would be forced to look into the faces of these disenfranchised youth.

If video does not display, watch it here.

Face 2 Face (Israel to Palestine)

JR’s next illegal project (2007) was an international one in collaboration with Marco Berrebi, where he photographed Israeli and Palestinian people in the same professions with a 28 mm lens.

This close-up approach meant that the taxi drivers, hairdressers, students, sportspeople, actors, musicians, sculptors, and police looked comically distorted. It also meant they were engaged with the photographer. They talked . . . and listened. They connected.

JR then pasted the huge black-and-white photographs in unavoidable places in eight cities in both Israel and Palestine (including on the dividing wall).

The intent and the result was that most people could not tell if the subjects were Israeli or Palestinian. The viewers no doubt smiled at the fun expressions, recognized certain similarities, and engaged in conversation about the project. More importantly, they perhaps focused on the possibility of living together as humans in peace.

Israelis and Palestinians pasted on the separation wall in Bethlehem, Palestinian side.
© JR

Woman Are Heroes

The “Women Are Heroes” project began in 2007 and stretched from Kenya to Brazil, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Cambodia, India, Paris, and Le Havre.

JR met and photographed women who live in the midst of conflict or in challenging climate or economic conditions and who are often targets during war and victims of violence. And yet, they play a pivotal role in family and society.

As in all his projects, he then pasted the large photographs in highly visible places in the cities and villages, so that the women were “seen” and shown with dignity.

One of the most dramatic pastings was in the Morro da Providência favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In this dangerous slum, the faces of the women inside the homes were shown on the outside walls, filling the hillside with haunting eyes and poignant faces. And for one brief moment, the favela was known for something other than drugs and violence.

Women Are Heroes in the Favela Morro da Providência, Brazil.
© JR

For the Kenya project, the photos that were placed on the women’s roofs were made of water resistant vinyl so that they would last longer and could protect the fragile houses during the rainy season.

Because many of the women photographed for this project asked that their stories be shared with the world, the photos were pasted on trains and trucks that traveled throughout the countries.

The ultimate journey was when JR pasted a Kenyan women’s eyes on cargo containers that were on a ship leaving Le Havre, France, bound for Malaysia. These eyes went off to see the world . . . and to be seen by the world.

Making the strong women of Sierra Leone visible to all
© JR

This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

Immigration and “the wall” between the U.S. and Mexico were in the news in 2017 when JR created a project highlighting the border fence near Tecate, Mexico.

He created a giant billboard-like installation of a Mexican child innocently peeking over the fence into the United States. What does this promised land hold . . . or bar? What do we see from this Mexican border town where most everyone passing through tries to be invisible?

What is Kikito thinking as he peeks over the border fence into the USA?
© JR

To celebrate the day when the installation had to be removed, JR organized a picnic on both sides of the fence, with a table that was half in the U.S. and half in Mexico and a “tablecloth” that presented the eyes of a DACA dreamer.

Everyone brought food to share. Music wafted through the fence, with half the band in the U.S. and half in Mexico.

JR thought the border patrol would stop the celebration, but the party was allowed to continue. Everyone was reveling in a rare moment of unity.

An impromptu celebration of unity at the border fence between Mexico and the USA
© JR

Giving Voice to Prisoners

From the disenfranchised youth of JR’s home in the suburbs of Paris to the California Tehachapi  maximum-security prison, JR focuses on making us see those we have made invisible.

For his 2019 project at the prison, he photographed prisoners, guards, and former prisoners—one by one— from above, so that when they were combined into one mural on the concrete floor of the yard, they would appear to be looking outward. Each man was also videotaped telling his story. There was no judgement. JR just wanted to listen . . . and for others to listen.

Prisoners, former prisoners, and guards at the Tehachapi Prison come together
in JR’s mural pasting and look out toward . . .
© JR

The prisoners were part of the team that pasted the photos to the yard—one team building something together. The mural was ephemeral, like many of JR’s works. The pasting disappeared in three days with the normal activity of the prisoners in the yard.

If video does not display, watch it here.

As an epilogue to this project, JR returned in 2020 and pasted photographs of the Tehachapi mountains on the prison wall, making the wall disappear and morph into a mirage of freedom.

A mirage of freedom—making the prison wall merge with the mountains
© JR

Oh, I See: Turning the World Inside Out

JR, the artivist, is prolific. His projects are too numerous to mention in one story. He has turned the Louvre pyramid into 3D time travel (2019) and has honored the elderly of the world in a project called “Wrinkles of the City” (2008-2015).

JRs 2019 3D optical illusion at the Louvre pyramid in Paris
© JR

He continues to expand our social awareness and invent creative ways to shine a light on those who need to be more visible in the name of fairness and equality.

Can art change the world? JR’s foundation of that name hopes so.

One thing is certain. JR believes that art can change the way we see the world and the amazing humans that inhabit this planet. He will continue to open our eyes so that we can see and be seen. Onward . . .

See also JR’s 2017 film with Agnes Varda entitled Visages/Villages (Faces/Places) and his organization Can Art Change The World.

Thank you to JR and Agence VU.

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