Jr
Projection Wrinkles Of The City, Istanbul
16 Mar - 13 May 2017
JR
Projection Wrinkles Of The City, Istanbul
Solo Show
16 March - 13 May 2017
Perrotin gallery, Paris, is happy to present from March 16 to May 13, 2017 the screening of “WRINKLES of The CITY Istanbul”, a movie by Guillaume Cagniard on JR’s project. The artworks made within the project will be exhibited beside the screening.
In 2000, I was seventeen years old. The television, the telephone, internet and low-cost travel would open new horizons.
By my side, I had my two grandmothers, born in 1915 and 1923. They were telling me about their childhood spent on two different continents, their husband who had been chosen for them by their parents. One spoke to me of decolonization which had transformed her country, the other of the war which had obliged her to run away, alone with her son. One mentioned her choice to work when women were supposed to stay at home, the other of her difficulty to learn French. They told me about 100 mile journeys prepared over several weeks, about their world where roles were defined at birth, and where religion took the role of morality. They baked me cakes with dates, flour and oil, or small and very simple biscuits.
The women who looked after me were seventy years older than me. In the end, I think that it was rather me who took care of them. Obviously, one does not carry out a project, one does not travel the world and one does not write a book simply to be able to inscribe: “To my grandmothers with whom I grew up”, however at the time when I added these words, this idea came to my mind. With them, I crossed the twentieth century, I shared their secrets, I was in touch with sexism, racism, fear, stupidity, war, difference, submission, revolt, success, exile, failure, sadness and joy and I wanted to continue travelling in the past.
The project Wrinkles of the City / Des rides et des villes started in 2008 in Cartagena in Spain and then moved to Shanghai, Havana, Los Angeles, Berlin and Istanbul. Each of these cities has experienced metamorphosis during the last decades, leaving only walls and old people to tell their stories. I wanted to confront the facades with the people, the collective history with the individual’s narratives. The women and men whom I met are thus the last witnesses of the attack of Cartagena by Franco in 1939, of the rise to power of Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1959, of the Chinese cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976, of the end of racial segregation in the Unites States in the 1960’s, of the fall of Hitler in 1945 and the separation of Germany until 1989, of the secularization of Turkey (the rise to power of the Islamists in 1994 will put an end to it). When they are gone, there will only be written or filmed versions of their stories. Via them, one sees the passing of the major movements which structured the twentieth century: fascism; communism; Nazism; the fight for civil rights; decolonization; the Cold War and capitalism. One senses the events which start to shake the twenty-first century.
Of course, they themselves have an altered vision of their journey. Amongst the people who we interviewed few were on the wrong side of History. At a certain age, you rewrite your own past. No one admitted to being fascist under Franco in Spain or segregationist in the United States. Those who were often in the majority in those days are perhaps more reticent towards being in front of a camera to tell their life story compared to those who were victims or heroes.
In a few minutes, they tell us who they are, what they have done and what seems interesting to them. The interviews are always too short. How can one summarize an entire life in a few sentences? What are the joys and the sorrows for which time can not erase its trace? Ultimately, what really matters?
To record their memory, which coincides with that of their city, I took the wrinkles of those who have seen their world undergo metamorphosis. In photographing them, I listened to their life. Those who spent time with my team and me responded to questions, sometimes vocal, sometimes embarrassed or reserved. However wrinkles never lie. Like lines written by hand, some radiate from the eyes like stars, others cross the forehead harmoniously, like waves. Each chapter is a moment of their life, an echo of all that these characters had endured during their lives. When I had finished turning over the pages of their book, I pasted them on walls with paper and glue. In each city, the stories had local flavor and some stay with me. In Istanbul, I want the diversity of the city to be represented in my photos. We look for a Kurd and a Jew. It is exactly one hundred years since the Armenian genocide and I want to find an Armenian from Istanbul. In the Grand Bazar, we met some delightful people however they are not comfortable to share their life story or to be glued in large format on the walls. One century after the events of 1915, fear is still present.
I never tire of the walls which ask the passersby questions. What does this man think of when he closes his eyes? What are the first images which come to mind amongst the millions which have marked his life? Why does this woman have a sad gaze and yet the faint beginning of a smile? My own wrinkles, those which are in the process of forming, what will they say about my life?
JR
Extract of “Wrinkles of the City”, JR, Publisher Alternatives, 2015, 276 pages
JR creates “Pervasive Art” that spreads uninvited on the buildings of the slums around Paris, on the walls in the Middle-East, on the broken bridges in Africa or the favelas in Brazil. People who often live with the bare minimum discover something absolutely unnecessary. In that Art scene, there is no stage to separate the actors from the spectators.
JR exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are not typical museum visitors. Born in 1983 in France, JR works between Paris and New York. After finding a camera in the Paris metro in 2001, he traveled Europe to meet those who express themselves on walls and facades, and pasted their portraits in the streets, undergrounds and rooftops of Paris.
Between 2004 and 2006, he created the series “Portrait of a Generation”. In 2007, with Marco, he made Face 2 Face, the biggest illegal exhibition ever. JR posted huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities.
In 2008, he embarked on a long international trip for “Women Are Heroes”, in which he underlines the dignity of women who are often the targets of conflicts. That year he also created “The Wrinkles of the City” in Cartagena, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Havana, Berlin and Istanbul. In 2010, his film “Women Are Heroes” was presented at Cannes Film Festival.
The same year, JR created “Unframed”, a project in which he uses images that are not his, and reframes them in a new context, on a larger scale.
In 2011 he received the TED Prize, after which he created “Inside Out”. In a collaboration with New York City Ballet, he used the language of ballet to tell his story of the riots that happened in the French suburbs in 2005 and created “Les Bosquets”, a ballet and eponymous short film whose music was composed by Woodkid, Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer and which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.
In 2014, he created an installation with 4,000 faces in and on the Pantheon in Paris. The concept of crowd will be used for a video installation at the CAC Malaga, and on the façade of Assemblée Nationale and other monuments in Paris during the COP 21 summit at the end of 2015. The same year, he worked in the abandoned hospital of Ellis Island and directed the short movie ELLIS, starring Robert De Niro. In 2016 he was invited by the Louvre and made the famous pyramid disappear through a surprising anamorphosis. He worked in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympics and created new gigantic sculptural installations using scaffolding, at the scale of the city, putting an emphasis on the beauty of the athletic movement.
His latest projects include a museum exhibition dedicated to children at Centre Pompidou, a permanent collaboration with the Brazilian artists Os Gemeos at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, in a space used to store stolen pianos during World War II, and a film with Agnès Varda, co-directing a movie with the Nouvelle Vague icon, traveling around France to meet people and discuss their visions. This Spring, JR will unveil a giant mural at Palais de Tokyo, in connection with a new project based in Clichy-Montfermeil.
JR is represented by Galerie Perrotin since 2011; he has had shows in Paris, Hong-Kong, Miami and New York. In 2013, JR got his first museum retrospectives in Tokyo (Watari-Um) and CAC in Cincinnati, followed by Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden in 2014 and HOCA Foundation in Hong-Kong in 2015.
Born in France in 1983, works in Paris and New York. Winner of the TED Prize in 2011.
Projection Wrinkles Of The City, Istanbul
Solo Show
16 March - 13 May 2017
Perrotin gallery, Paris, is happy to present from March 16 to May 13, 2017 the screening of “WRINKLES of The CITY Istanbul”, a movie by Guillaume Cagniard on JR’s project. The artworks made within the project will be exhibited beside the screening.
In 2000, I was seventeen years old. The television, the telephone, internet and low-cost travel would open new horizons.
By my side, I had my two grandmothers, born in 1915 and 1923. They were telling me about their childhood spent on two different continents, their husband who had been chosen for them by their parents. One spoke to me of decolonization which had transformed her country, the other of the war which had obliged her to run away, alone with her son. One mentioned her choice to work when women were supposed to stay at home, the other of her difficulty to learn French. They told me about 100 mile journeys prepared over several weeks, about their world where roles were defined at birth, and where religion took the role of morality. They baked me cakes with dates, flour and oil, or small and very simple biscuits.
The women who looked after me were seventy years older than me. In the end, I think that it was rather me who took care of them. Obviously, one does not carry out a project, one does not travel the world and one does not write a book simply to be able to inscribe: “To my grandmothers with whom I grew up”, however at the time when I added these words, this idea came to my mind. With them, I crossed the twentieth century, I shared their secrets, I was in touch with sexism, racism, fear, stupidity, war, difference, submission, revolt, success, exile, failure, sadness and joy and I wanted to continue travelling in the past.
The project Wrinkles of the City / Des rides et des villes started in 2008 in Cartagena in Spain and then moved to Shanghai, Havana, Los Angeles, Berlin and Istanbul. Each of these cities has experienced metamorphosis during the last decades, leaving only walls and old people to tell their stories. I wanted to confront the facades with the people, the collective history with the individual’s narratives. The women and men whom I met are thus the last witnesses of the attack of Cartagena by Franco in 1939, of the rise to power of Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1959, of the Chinese cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976, of the end of racial segregation in the Unites States in the 1960’s, of the fall of Hitler in 1945 and the separation of Germany until 1989, of the secularization of Turkey (the rise to power of the Islamists in 1994 will put an end to it). When they are gone, there will only be written or filmed versions of their stories. Via them, one sees the passing of the major movements which structured the twentieth century: fascism; communism; Nazism; the fight for civil rights; decolonization; the Cold War and capitalism. One senses the events which start to shake the twenty-first century.
Of course, they themselves have an altered vision of their journey. Amongst the people who we interviewed few were on the wrong side of History. At a certain age, you rewrite your own past. No one admitted to being fascist under Franco in Spain or segregationist in the United States. Those who were often in the majority in those days are perhaps more reticent towards being in front of a camera to tell their life story compared to those who were victims or heroes.
In a few minutes, they tell us who they are, what they have done and what seems interesting to them. The interviews are always too short. How can one summarize an entire life in a few sentences? What are the joys and the sorrows for which time can not erase its trace? Ultimately, what really matters?
To record their memory, which coincides with that of their city, I took the wrinkles of those who have seen their world undergo metamorphosis. In photographing them, I listened to their life. Those who spent time with my team and me responded to questions, sometimes vocal, sometimes embarrassed or reserved. However wrinkles never lie. Like lines written by hand, some radiate from the eyes like stars, others cross the forehead harmoniously, like waves. Each chapter is a moment of their life, an echo of all that these characters had endured during their lives. When I had finished turning over the pages of their book, I pasted them on walls with paper and glue. In each city, the stories had local flavor and some stay with me. In Istanbul, I want the diversity of the city to be represented in my photos. We look for a Kurd and a Jew. It is exactly one hundred years since the Armenian genocide and I want to find an Armenian from Istanbul. In the Grand Bazar, we met some delightful people however they are not comfortable to share their life story or to be glued in large format on the walls. One century after the events of 1915, fear is still present.
I never tire of the walls which ask the passersby questions. What does this man think of when he closes his eyes? What are the first images which come to mind amongst the millions which have marked his life? Why does this woman have a sad gaze and yet the faint beginning of a smile? My own wrinkles, those which are in the process of forming, what will they say about my life?
JR
Extract of “Wrinkles of the City”, JR, Publisher Alternatives, 2015, 276 pages
JR creates “Pervasive Art” that spreads uninvited on the buildings of the slums around Paris, on the walls in the Middle-East, on the broken bridges in Africa or the favelas in Brazil. People who often live with the bare minimum discover something absolutely unnecessary. In that Art scene, there is no stage to separate the actors from the spectators.
JR exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are not typical museum visitors. Born in 1983 in France, JR works between Paris and New York. After finding a camera in the Paris metro in 2001, he traveled Europe to meet those who express themselves on walls and facades, and pasted their portraits in the streets, undergrounds and rooftops of Paris.
Between 2004 and 2006, he created the series “Portrait of a Generation”. In 2007, with Marco, he made Face 2 Face, the biggest illegal exhibition ever. JR posted huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities.
In 2008, he embarked on a long international trip for “Women Are Heroes”, in which he underlines the dignity of women who are often the targets of conflicts. That year he also created “The Wrinkles of the City” in Cartagena, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Havana, Berlin and Istanbul. In 2010, his film “Women Are Heroes” was presented at Cannes Film Festival.
The same year, JR created “Unframed”, a project in which he uses images that are not his, and reframes them in a new context, on a larger scale.
In 2011 he received the TED Prize, after which he created “Inside Out”. In a collaboration with New York City Ballet, he used the language of ballet to tell his story of the riots that happened in the French suburbs in 2005 and created “Les Bosquets”, a ballet and eponymous short film whose music was composed by Woodkid, Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer and which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.
In 2014, he created an installation with 4,000 faces in and on the Pantheon in Paris. The concept of crowd will be used for a video installation at the CAC Malaga, and on the façade of Assemblée Nationale and other monuments in Paris during the COP 21 summit at the end of 2015. The same year, he worked in the abandoned hospital of Ellis Island and directed the short movie ELLIS, starring Robert De Niro. In 2016 he was invited by the Louvre and made the famous pyramid disappear through a surprising anamorphosis. He worked in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympics and created new gigantic sculptural installations using scaffolding, at the scale of the city, putting an emphasis on the beauty of the athletic movement.
His latest projects include a museum exhibition dedicated to children at Centre Pompidou, a permanent collaboration with the Brazilian artists Os Gemeos at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, in a space used to store stolen pianos during World War II, and a film with Agnès Varda, co-directing a movie with the Nouvelle Vague icon, traveling around France to meet people and discuss their visions. This Spring, JR will unveil a giant mural at Palais de Tokyo, in connection with a new project based in Clichy-Montfermeil.
JR is represented by Galerie Perrotin since 2011; he has had shows in Paris, Hong-Kong, Miami and New York. In 2013, JR got his first museum retrospectives in Tokyo (Watari-Um) and CAC in Cincinnati, followed by Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden in 2014 and HOCA Foundation in Hong-Kong in 2015.
Born in France in 1983, works in Paris and New York. Winner of the TED Prize in 2011.