CLARIDGE'S BROOK'S MEWS
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Perrotin is pleased to present Outposts by French artist JR, the inaugural exhibition of its new gallery in London.
Displaying fifteen artworks, the exhibition presents two series of recent, ongoing projects of JR: Déplacé·e·s (begun in 2022) shares the stories of refugee children from around the world, which giant portraits enlarging on huge banners visible from the sky give these children back their lost identities. Les Enfants d’Ouranos (Children of Ouranos), building upon Déplacé·e·s, explore through white silhouettes on black painted wood panels the tensions between the visible and invisible.
Alongside these series, the exhibition showcases two video screenings that document the series of Déplacé·e·s.
In 2022, JR began Déplacé·e·s, a series conceived with refugee populations in Ukraine, Rwanda, Mauritania, Greece, and Colombia.
Déplacé·e·s presented aerial photographs of 120 foot-long banners depicting the full image of young children playfully running. Carried by large groups of people around refugee camps or a city, the printed banners revealed, with keen clarity and specificity, the naivety and innocence of displaced children living through conflict. Their massive scale and larger-than-life format provided a duly deserved commemorative moment, serving as a temporary monument to the childrens’ dreams and aspirations.
The series Children of Ouranos—referring to the primordial Greek god of the sky who fathered the Titans, the first gods—and associates JR’s subjects with holiness. Negatives of each photograph are transferred onto reclaimed wood and reinforced with black ink for contrast. The children become glowing silhouettes, evoking classical depictions of divinity.
Unveiling this new photographic and technical process, JR renders the portraits of the children in a mysterious, uncanny manner. With a new technique that harkens back to earlier practices, JR creates an idealized version of youth, saturated in divine connotations, ripe with possibilities. The negative space allows him to reveal what, until now, has remained invisible: the divinity of children emanating from carefree innocence and ingenuity. With this new work JR instills the images of the children directly impacted by global conflict and living in refugee camps with transcendence and the opportunity to command influence and create a new world.
In these images, surfaces reflecting light are reversed and presented as shadows and where shadows exist, the areas are filled with light. The reversal of light and dark conveys a sense of otherworldliness to these children’s depictions and blurs specificities and particularities. They become atmospheric portraits imbued with a primordial or mythological quality, referenced by the title of the series.
Text by Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Director of The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
“Notions of borders and migration permeate my entire body of work. What’s new about Déplacé·e·s is that these ideas are consistently represented from a child’s perspective. The impact of Kikito (a 2017 installation on the border between Mexico and the USA) already confirmed this: the portrayal of a child reaches the deepest level of our being. The feeling of childhood significantly amplifies the impact of any message. Is there anything more powerful? [...] The common denominator of the Déplacé·e·s series is its profound connection to childhood. Each piece features a child who embodies the drive toward the future. This perspective introduces an element of hope in the simplest way possible. Such a staging raises questions about the fate of children in such crises. What is their place, their importance, their value? What are their rights? What is their destiny?”
The opening day of the exhibition marks the anniversary of the deployement of Valeriia, a 45-meter-long printed tarpaulin with the help of around a hundred people in the center of Lviv, Ukraine. In March 2022, shortly after Russian troops began their invasion of Ukraine, JR traveled to Ukraine, to unveil the giant portrait of the 5-year-old refugee. The portrait of the young girl was taken by photographer Artem Lurchenko among other images of children who have just crossed the Polish border to find refuge. Valeriia’s portrait became in March 2022 the cover of the Time magazine, depicting the resilience of Ukraine and revealing hope throughout Art in this trouble time.
More about Perrotin London
Situated in the heart of Mayfair, the gallery features 350 m2 of completely refurbished space in Claridge’s, a true British landmark. Perrotin is thrilled to be setting up its first London space in this vibrant and historic neighborhood. Located on Brook’s Mews, the gallery will be next to Claridge’s ArtSpace Café. Perrotin London will offer a program created together with its artists to coincide with the city’s major cultural events, such as Frieze London, where the gallery has participated since 2004. For the 2024 edition, the gallery has presented works by British sculptor Lynn Chadwick, whose Estate recently joined the gallery.
“London has always been a special city for me as it’s the place where I’ve had my first gallery show back in 2008. I’m honored to be the first artist to be showcased at Perrotin's new space!”
Né en 1983 à Paris, France
Habite et travaille entre Paris, France et New York, NY, USA
JR works at the intersection of photography, public art, filmmaking and social engagement. Over the last two decades, he has created monumental public projects and site-specific interventions in cities all over the world. Whether it be pasting on homes in a Brazilian favela (2008-9), hosting a picnic across the US-Mexico border fence (2017), working alongside 400 volunteers to create a trompe-l’oeil at the Louvre in Paris (2019), or organizing a procession around the enormous banner of a refugee child in the Sahara Desert (2022), JR seeks to involve everyone in the act of artistic creation, hoping to create conversations and drive social change.
He has exhibited his artworks and installations internationally, including the Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm with his first exhibition « Déplacé.e.s » in the Nordic region (2024), at the Venice Biennale (2022), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2019), and the NGV Triennial (2020). After opening at the Brooklyn Museum, USA (2019), his solo exhibition JR: Chronicles traveled to Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2021), Groninger Museum, Netherlands (2021), Kunsthalle Munich, Germany (2022) and Lotte Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2023).
JR is also the director of four full-length documentaries: Women Are Heroes (2011); the Academy Award-nominated Faces and Places (2017), co-directed by Agnès Varda; the Emmy-nominated Paper & Glue (2021); and most recently, Tehachapi, which premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival.
À propos de l'artiste
