art in english

JR is a French street artist who travels the world to take people’s portrait. Then he makes very big stickers of those faces and hangs it on the buildings. The point is to bear witness, to mark the spot of a life, to spread a message but mostly to pay a tribute to the unknown persons. It’s also makes the buildings more beautiful and our environment more lively. Actually, he draws attention to places that we don’t necessarily see like the favela in Rio. Moreover, I think we see the building in a another way and it makes us think about the message which JR wants to convey.

Finally, unlike the most of the others street artists, he doesn’t make vandalism because we ask him to do his work most of the time.

That was for the street artist, now I will talk about a work of Art in particular. I have chosen the monumental photo of Kikito, a mexican child, which JR have installed on the wall which separate Mexico and the California, in Tecate more precisely, in the U.S. He installed this photo on a ground of a modest family which also accepted that the youngest of the family serve as a model for the black and white photo.

Seen from the American side, the child seems to be inside a crib, getting ready to escape toward something that’s caught his attention. JR has chosen a one-year-child because even the children notice this wall and wanted to cross it like Kikito despite the fact that he doesn’t have a political vision, or any point of view. So, he obviously denounces this wall and the Trump’s decision.