KYIV.- French artist JR’s global participatory art project has come to Ukraine with a monumental Photobooth Action at PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv on June 30, 2023 and will continue to January 7, 2024. In March 2022, less than one month into the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, JR travelled to Lviv in search of ways to help and engage with Ukrainians. His trip resulted in the work Valeriia (2022), an image of a 5-year-old Ukrainian girl from Kryvyi Rih seeking refuge in Poland. The image transformed into an action, performed on the main square of Lviv, that became the cover of the March-April issue of Time Magazine. Not only did this work help bring attention to the lives at risk in Ukraine, but also, through the sale of two NFTs of Valeriia, it also raised funds to support Ukrainians.

Today, we are proud to announce that PinchukArtCentre is hosting a collection of JR’s artwork and bringing his global participatory art project Inside Out to Kyiv. We present a series of lithographs, giving an enticing view into his work and global artistic practice. The selection focuses on his engagement with vulnerable groups and his large-scale monumental projects. We are also excited to announce the latest Inside Out Photobooth: Inside Out Kyiv: We Are Here!

At a time of hardship and systematic threat to life, we invite all Ukrainians to join in a moment of joy, positivity and togetherness by participating in an Inside Out Action. Our Photobooth Action shares the message, We are here.

A specially designed Photobooth will be present in the PinchukArtCentre where everyone is invited to take their portrait and later paste it onto the walls of the ArtCentre. Beyond that, we invite communities or just groups of friends from all over Ukraine to join this call to action. All are welcome to come to take their portraits and create their own Inside Out installations by pasting the portraits in public spaces to amplify the message We Are Here!

Alongside taking their portraits, we also invite visitors to share their stories and experiences in a recording booth to create an audio portrait of Ukrainians in Ukraine for the world to discover. Those recorded testimonies will eventually be available online alongside the portraits and images from We Are Here! on the Inside Out website.

This project will be a statement of strength where all Ukrainians take a stand, making clear: Ukraine and Ukraine's future is theirs.

JR exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are not typical museum visitors. From the suburbs of Paris to the slums of Brazil to the streets of Istanbul, JR pastes huge portraits of little-known people. In 2011, after receiving the TED Prize, JR created Inside Out, a global participatory art project that helps communities make a statement by displaying large-scale black and white portraits in public spaces. As of May 2023, over half a million people from more than 150 countries and territories have participated in the project by creating their own installations or entering one of the Inside Out photobooths. JR’s projects include a large-scale pasting in a maximum security prison in California, a TIME Magazine cover about guns in America, a video mural including 1,200 people presented at SFMOMA, a collaboration with New York City Ballet, an Academy Award nominated feature documentary co-directed with Nouvelle Vague legend Agnès Varda, a huge installation on the Pantheon in Paris, a pasting on the pyramid of the Louvre, a monumental mural “à la Diego Rivera” in the suburbs of Paris, giant scaffolding installations at the 2016 Rio Olympics, an exhibition on the abandoned hospital of Ellis Island, a social restaurant for the homeless and refugees in Paris and a gigantic installation at the US-Mexico border fence.

As he remains anonymous, JR leaves the space open for an encounter between the subject/protagonist and the passer-by/interpreter. That is what JR's work is about, raising questions.

The exhibition is curated by Björn Geldhof, Artistic Director of the PinchukArtCentre.

PinchukArtCentre
Inside Out Photobooth: Inside Out Kyiv: We Are Here!
June 30th, 2023 - January 7th, 2023