In , JR staged a ballet telling the story of the riots and the life of Ladj Ly, an ally right from the beginning. Bodies under tension, police chases and Molotov cocktails then became classic in their reinterpretation by Lil Buck, the dancer Lauren Lovette and the 42 members of the New York City Ballet. Since December , JR has photographed, with the help of his associate Ladj Ly, over inhabitants, workers and passers-by in Clichy-Montfermeil, while asking them to play back moments from their everyday lives, which he then presents in a huge, epic fresco, with a rhythm reminiscent of paintings by Diego Rivera β , the artist who celebrated the history of the Mexican people in his politically motivated murals.
In , the fresco will be unveiled at Palais de Tokyo with a new documentary film co-directed with Ladj Ly, thus marking two new steps in this long-term project about the memory of Clichy-Montfermeil. As soon as I imagine that I know this town by heart, it then been totally metamorphoses, and it is always brimming over with life. My work is linked to architecture: an architecture that can unite just as it can enclose. This fresco forms an image of Clichy-Montfermeil made up of portraits of different generations who have seen the utopia of this neighbourhood fall apart, with poverty and social tensions worsening to such an extent that, after the deaths of two teenagers, Zyed and Bouna, in , it became the trigger point of the biggest riots in French history.
It is a portrait of those who strive to put poetry back into cement. JR See more. For his third intervention at Palais de Tokyo, JR is unveiling a monumental fresco of over m2, forming a singular portrait of the inhabitants of Clichy-Montfermeil Seine-Saint-Denis , towns where the popular rebellions that shook France in began.
Thus, these portraits appeared as a backdrop to the rebellion. He then stuck up these portraits in XXL format on the walls of Paris, indicating on each occasion the names and addresses of his models. Read more. Open every day except Tuesdays, from noon until midnight.
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