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Art Not Just For Art's Sake in Kenya

Where: Kibera, Kenya
February 4, 2009 at 4:19 PM | by | Comments (0)

Not all art is strictly about the aestetic, some pieces provide an important function in the community like the large black and white photographs installed this week on rooftops across Kibera, Kenya. The intimate photos, taken by photographer JR, act as a second roof, protecting the village’s delicate structures from water damage, a vital job in one of Africa’s worst slums.

Over 2,000 feet of rooftops were covered with pictures of the faces of the women of Kibera. As part of the installation JR also covered a train that passes through the village twice a day with images of the women’s eyes and then plastered the bottom half of their faces on a slope just below the tracks.

This way, when the train passes through it completes the women’s faces. A gallant effort considering the only things wrapped around buses in America are advertisements. The collection of rooftop faces is the artist’s most grandiose project to date, so large it can be seen on Google Earth.

JR has been working undercover throughout Europe installing large photographs on the sides of building and turning streets into open air galleries for nearly a decade. He displayed huge photos of teenagers on the European Center for Photography and the Hotel de Ville in Paris as part of his renowned 2006 project, "28 millimeters".

The Kibera project is not the first time JR has combined art with a cause. In 2005, he founded the Face 2 Face Project with fellow photographer, Marco. The two artists took portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and posted them face to face in large formats on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides. The project was intended to point out the similarities between the two groups and hopefully become a stepping stone toward ending violence in the region.

Unlike most art installations, the Kibera project has no end date and JR is hopeful it will be long lasting, not for is own ego, but for the sake of the Kibera people.

Related Stories:
· JR [Official Site]
· JR Finishes His Most Ambitious Project Yet In The Slums In Kibera, Kenya [Wooster Collective]
· JR - Photographer-activist [Rasmus Bronnum]
· New Outdoor Photography by JR [UTNE]
· Street Art coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: JR-art]

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