Museum Frieder Burda announces JR exhibition

The Museum Frieder Burda presents JR an exhibition open March 1–June 29, 2014.

The French artist JR (*1983) is one of the most innovative representatives of contemporary art on the international scene. He lives and works in Paris and New York, and he consciously keeps his true identity a secret. He applies his oversized black-and-white photographs in the form of monumental posters to walls worldwide. Thoroughly considering the urban architecture, JRs work adapts cultural and historical contexts and the emotional impact finds expression in the faces of the people in his close-up photographs. Based on this idea, the artist already has carried out large-scale projects in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia.

JR’s most important motivation is interaction with other people. His works raise questions about freedom and identity and in how far art can change people’s perception of themselves and their environment. However, his actions also draw attention to injustice. Characteristic of JR’s art are the stories he tells with his collages and his talent for bringing together isolated worlds. JR creates relationships. He is a conductor who lends a face to anonymous existences or unrecognized and even forgotten stories. In 2011, JR won the TED Prize—the 2007 recipient of the award was Bill Clinton—for his creative visions. “My art does not change the world, but I hope it inspires people to change how they look at the world and at other people,” says JR.

JR began his career as a graffiti artist. As an adolescent, after finding a camera in the Paris Metro, he began documenting his jaunts over the roofs and in the tunnels of Paris. He carried out his first large-scale project, Portrait of a Generation, as early as 2004. Following riots in the Paris suburbs, JR put up posters in just these suburbs and middle-class districts of Paris featuring photographs he took of youths during the unrest. These images challenge the passersby, in the sense that they question the social and media representation of this generation. After the first posters were quickly removed by the city cleaning service, the city government soon legalized the project and suggested to JR that he apply his posters to public surfaces near city hall.

Museum Frieder Burda
Lichtentaler Allee 8b
76530 Baden-Baden
Germany