JR - Unframed Festival Images 2010, Vevey
Unframed
Co-produced by the Festival Images (Vevey) and the Musée de l'Elysée (Lausanne), Unframed is an unprecedented urban project created for the city of Vevey, with images from the collection of the Musée de l'Elysée. The urban installations shown mark a new artistic direction in JR’s career who appropriates the images from the collections of the Musée de l’Elysée: the works of great photographers and anonymous authors become the material of his performances. JR immersed himself in these collections to bring a new approach and change the context of some major icons in the history of photography including the work of Robert Capa, Man Ray, Gilles Caron, Helen Levitt, Mario Giacomelli, Lucia Moholy, John Phillips and Sebastião Salgado. He then displays reproductions of these icons on facades which serve as ‘an exhibition space’. The city transforms itself into a giant open air museum. The images, keeping their references, even if they are used in a totally different way, take on a new meaning. Their inclusion in the public space gives a new meaning to their reading. The visitor, with a sense of déjà vu, can discover on a street corner the strength of JR’s work.
JR (France, *1984)
French artist, JR has undertaken projects for monumental urban performances. In 2007, Face2Face illegally presented huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians on both sides of the separation wall / security fence in Jerusalem. In 2008, he joined an international trip for Women Are Heroes, a project in which he emphasized the dignity of women. In 2010, the eponymous feature film competed for the Caméra d'Or at Cannes. JR has notably exhibited his work in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Arles, Berlin, Los Angeles and New York.