JR

In Ballet, Sur les Toits du Louvre #6, Vertical, Paper Block, Paris,France (2021), a dancer appears to slide down the steep roof of theLouvre — a mix of elegance and risk that defines much of JR’s work.His images often explore that space between performance andreal life, between daring and grace. Behind the spectacle lies JR’songoing social practice — projects that involve communities andtransform large-scale ideas into personal moments. His process, ashe says, “is the adventure.” The works on view capture that spirit,showing how imagination and collaboration can turn the impossibleinto something tangible.

JR’s connection with the Louvre runs deep. In 2016, and again in2019, he created large-scale anamorphoses that made I. M. Pei’sfamous glass pyramid appear to disappear into the ground. In 2019,hundreds of volunteers worked together on a massive pasting, whichslowly faded as visitors walked over them — a poetic reminder thatpublic art lives and disappears through participation.

Throughout the exhibition, the themes of illusion and movementrecur. Dancers balance on the edge of rooftops or leap from cranes, caught in moments that seem to defy gravity. Eyes also appearthroughout JR’s work — sometimes formed by dancers’ bodies,sometimes seen from above.

The exhibition also revisits JR’s long connection to Le Havre, wherehis Women Are Heroes project once covered a cargo ship withthe eyes of a woman from Kenya. In new images, ballerinas danceamong shipping containers, bringing poetry and fragility to anindustrial landscape.

More intimate works on wood show dancers resting or curled withinboxes — like delicate beings in transit, waiting to emerge again.

Kaleidoscope, a related exhibition of JR opens at Galleria Continua,Beijing, on November 18.

Courtesy Perrotin.