Emmanuel Perrotin's new gallery in London, set to open on March 14, will showcase over 20 works by French artist JR. The exhibition features two significant series: Deplacé-e-s, highlighting the struggles of refugees, and Enfants d'Ouranos, which transforms photographs into silhouettes on reclaimed wood. Each installment from Deplacé-e-s represents the efforts of JR and his team to create large-scale images of refugee children in conflict zones, while the latter reflects on the innocence of children amid harsh realities. The exhibition runs until April 19, offering a profound commentary on sociopolitical crises through art.
For each installation in Deplacé-e-s, JR and his team travelled to a place where families were seeking refuge due to war, climate change, or social instability such as Ukraine, Rwanda and Colombia. "There, with the help of the community, they unfurled an image of a refugee child on a 45-meter-long tarpaulin," JR says in an online statement.
"These works take the shape of a photograph because you see silhouettes; it's like a cast of a photograph. In the end it's between a photograph and a painting," JR tells The Art Newspaper. "They are images made from negatives; suddenly it looks as if [these children] could be playing on the moon. The idea behind the project is that kids of a certain age do not realise the heaviness of the context."
Collection
[
|
...
]