The Latest JR Latest Mural Recontextualizes Images of Refugee Youth
The Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, NY presents this summer a 200-feet-long photographic mural by the French artist JR, titled Les Enfants d’Ouranos. Through October 22, whether visiting the museum or simply passing by during a drive along Montauk Highway, it can be found on the site’s expansive south façade covered in its entirety with contrasted black-and-white figures of children at play—an image born from the artist’s photo series documenting the youth in residence at various refugee camps.
JR, “Les Enfants d’Ouranos,” 2023, instillation view at Parrish Art Museum, courtesy of the artist.
Traveling to camps in Rwanda, Ukraine, Greece, Colombia, and Mauritania for his Déplacé.e series, JR captured portraits for large-scale banners that were viewed around the world. The artist continued to explore these in Water Mill, conveying a message of hope, innocence, and possibility for all to see. Transferring his original photographs into inverted, white-on-black images, the radiant figures can be seen running, playing, and interacting in groups along the length of the building, offering an impactful image when viewed either up close or afar.
What is JR known for? Making the World His Gallery
Appearing as though they could be playing in the grassy field surrounding the museum, the JR mural’s publicly visible nature aligns with his practice of image-making that employs the whole world as his gallery. It’s an approach that is a means of social justice which forges human connections and offers visibility to groups of people who are often overlooked or forgotten. Titled to mean “The Children of Ouranos,” in reference to the titans (gods who were once children), the context of the exhibition’s poignant composition removes these children from the times of adversity during which they were photographed, allowing them to transcend into a new time and setting where endless possibilities await.
JR, “Les Enfants d’Ouranos,” 2023, instillation view at Parrish Art Museum, courtesy of the artist.
“I am delighted that the Parrish’s iconic façade will be the architectural framework for JR’s tremendous mural that brings to light members of invisible communities—such as these displaced children—recontextualized as individuals with great potential to create a new world,” said Parrish Executive Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Ph.D of the JR mural.
The monumental mural is accompanied by the installation of a large-scale work, Les Enfants d’Ouranos, Bois #6, which sees similar imagery transferred onto black painted wood installed in the museum’s lobby for the duration of the mural’s existence. Earlier this summer, the artist also hosted a talk detailing his time at the refugee camps and how the series came to be.
“Nowhere in the world has anyone told me there is no place for art,” said JR.
JR, “Les Enfants d’Ouranos,” 2023, instillation view at Parrish Art Museum, courtesy of the artist.
