French photographer and street artist brings his work to Seoul — legally

He may have had a simple start to his street art career after finding a camera on a subway in Paris, but now he tours the globe, covering the grounds of the Louvre Museum or literally holding a gigantic feast across the border between the United...

"Migrants, Mayra, Picnic across the Border, Tecate, Mexico-U.S.A" (2017) [JR]

He may have had a simple start to his street art career after finding a camera on a subway in Paris, but now he tours the globe, covering the grounds of the Louvre Museum or literally holding a gigantic feast across the border between the United States and Mexico.

This is the story of French photographer and street artist JR, whose pseudonym is short for his first name, Jean-René.

French photographer and street artist JR during a press preview at the Lotte Museum of Art earlier this month for his first Korean solo exhibition, "Chronicles." [SHIN MIN-HEE]

The aforementioned two works made headlines several years ago — after all, it’s not every day that one sees thousands of strips of paper glued onto the grounds surrounding the Louvre’s glass pyramid that magically turn into a massive optical illusion, or take part in a large shared meal that crosses both sides of the Mexican border’s fence.

For the past 20 years, JR’s works have made their homes on the streets, with the artist pasting large-scale portraits or collages of people he's met onto the walls of buildings. He is now holding his first Korean solo exhibition, titled “Chronicles,” at the Lotte Museum of Art in Songpa District, southern Seoul.

“I don’t see this as a retrospective, but as an exhibition that oversees a few of the projects that connect people and bring community together,” he said.

Because his works tend to be larger than life, JR had heaps of stories to tell about them. During a press preview earlier this month, instead of a curator, he himself eagerly explained the background information for nearly all 140 pieces on view at the museum.

"JR at the Louvre Museum & The secret of the Great Pyramid, Anamorphosis in the morning" (2019) [SHIN MIN-HEE]

JR recalled how many of his initial projects brought him problems with the law.

“My practice was very illegal,” the 40-year-old artist told press. “I didn’t ask for any permit at that time. I would just take over the street and exhibited my photography this way.”

He was sued for posting black-and-white photographs as part of his “Portrait of a Generation” project in 2004 all over the Montfermeil suburbs of Paris. Among them, “Portrait of a Generation, Braquage, Ladj Ly” questions how the media can be biased in representing people of color through a depiction of French film director Ladj Ly holding up a camera like a gun.

“At the time, the mayor sued me for pasting on the buildings, but he could never find me because my identity was JR — the initials — and a year later the photos were still on the wall,” JR said. “There were very large riots in France that started in that neighborhood in front of my portraits, so that image was on the cover of the New York Times and so that’s how my work was first discovered overseas by the media.”

His “Face 2 Face” (2006-07) project was also held illegally. It featured giant portraits of Israelis and Palestinians of various occupations standing face-to-face on the dividing wall of the two nation’s borders across more than eight cities.

“Portrait of a Generation, Braquage, Ladj Ly” (2004) [JR]

He said that he does not necessarily try to “work illegally,” and that he usually tries to get permits from city officials when doing public projects.

In his “Chronicles” project, which started in Clichy-Montfermeil in 2017 and continued on to San Francisco and New York in 2018, he started collaging thousands of photos of individuals that all have a unique story to tell into a single frame. JR recorded each person’s story in their own voice and they are accessible though the free “JR:murals” app available on all mobile devices.

For “The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America” (2018), JR worked with TIME magazine and met with “a wide and complex spectrum” of people to share their differing opinions and experiences on firearms in the United States.

“The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America” (2018) [JR]

Megan Boland is a corporate executive from Virginia who is clearly visible in the photograph among 244 others, holding up a sign written with “Gun Rights = Women’s Rights!!!”

“I became a proponent of firearms when my husband was away on a business trip and someone tried to break into our house 10 years ago,” she says in her recording. “I went from being anti-gun to pro-gun in seconds.”

“You can click on every single person [through the app] and hear their point of view,” JR said. “Now, I couldn’t have those people in the same room because they do not agree with each other. So here you have a surgeon who is picking bullets out of bodies every day, you have the people from the Black Lives Matter and Black Guns Matter movement, you have White Supremacists. It represents the spectrum of society and why they are for or against gun control.”

To JR, documenting how his works came to life is essential when displaying them in an exhibition or even on his website. He says that it’s not the image that matters most, but the story behind each piece.

"The Wrinkles of the City, La Havana, Rafael Lorenzo y Obdulia Manzano" (2017) [JR]

“I’ve always documented [the process of my works],” JR said, “and so from my very beginning I really captured that so it could be exhibited in the best way to tell the story of how art has actually impacted people. That’s actually to me the most important part.”

The exhibition includes JR’s latest optical illusion piece on the Han River, titled “Untitled, Anamorphosis, Seoul” (2023). He noted that “the energy of the city is pretty intimidating at first” but that he aims to discover the layers to Seoul by communicating with the locals.

“Chronicles” continues until Aug. 6. The Lotte Museum of Art is open every day from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are 20,000 won ($15) for adults.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]