2020
While JR’s art is distinguished by its innovative forms of communication – born from street art, he uses the walls of cities as picture rails by sticking gigantic prints on posters – his formal approach is grounded in art history and more particularly in photography, his preferred medium. It is the ability of photography to record and uncover reality that he puts to the test, by portraying the forsaken of our societies, but also by playing on illusion and trompe l’oeil, like when he wraps the Pyramid of the Louvre in Paris in a large anamorphic collage. These polarities are reflected in his poster for the 2020 Montreux Jazz Festival. This Mise en abyme of a poster that a person punctures to reveal reality, the eye, reflects the photographer’s gaze and the public’s curiosity. It hence appears to comically reveal the other side of the canvas.
