Urban Art / JR in Baden Baden

The French artist JR - is one of the most innovative representatives of contemporary art on the international art scene - is presenting a solo exhibition at the Museum Frieder Burda, in Baden Baden, Germany. 

JR began his carrer as a graffiti artist. After finding a camera in the Paris Metro, he began documenting  his  actions over the roofs and in the tunnels of Paris.
Following riots in the Paris suburbs in 2004, JR put up posters in just these suburbs and middle-class districts of Paris featuring photograph he took of youths during unrest.
After the first posters were quickly removed by the city cleaning service, the city goverment soon legalised the project and suggested to JR to apply his posters to public surfaces near the city hall.
He works since this time all over the world:
in 2007 he produced portrait in the Middle East of Israelis and Palestines with a same professions: teachers, shopkeepers and  clerics in all religions and posted the huge pictures on the separation wall.

The Exhibition in Baden Baden presents this works and the other great JR -projects;  the faces of women of  the favela in Rio de Janeiro, Schoolboys age group 1966 in Marseille, black civil rights riots in Washington,  People of Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, India, Cambodia.

 As a large-scale project in the city’s urban space, UNFRAMED BADEN-BADEN addresses German-French history and the friendship between the two countries. By putting up posters featuring historical photographs from people’s private photo albums in Baden-Baden’s historic city, JR places the theme in a new context. In the run-up to the exhibition, citizens of Baden-Baden were invited to participate and submit their own personal material.

 Visitors to the exhibition can also have their portraits taken in a photo booth especially installed for the exhibiton at the Museum and participate in this great art project, the largest ever of its kind.

Photos by Susanna Lakner

The show is open until June 29th, 2014