(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Qatar Museums (QM) yesterday opened JR Répertoire - a major exhibition featuring works by celebrated French artist JR-at the QM Gallery in Katara.
The exhibition, which runs until the end of May and organised in collaboration with Galerie Perrotin, comprises some of the key series that have made the artist famous around the world in addition to a video lounge where selected video works can be viewed.
'We are proud and excited to present the first show in the Middle East of internationally acclaimed artist JR. This exhibition brings to life our commitment at Qatar Museums to display works by world class artists that inspire an indigenous culture of creativity and innovation, said Khalid Yousef Al Ibrahim, Chief Strategic Planning Officer at QM.
Beginning his artistic career at 17, JR is an artist turned photographer that maintains anonymity. His work combines art and engaged actions through large-scale outdoor installations, films, photographs and videos, using streetscape as his canvas.
He creates 'Pervasive Art that spreads uninvited on buildings and slums around Paris, on walls in the Middle East, on broken bridges in Africa or the favelas in Brazil. He doesn't explain his work, allowing the subjects, protagonists, spectators and passers-by to raise their own questions and interpret his work themselves.
'We hope this exhibition will spark creativity amongst young Qatari artists and residents in Qatar, who will visit the show, interpret JR's work in their own way and inspire enthusiasm in our community, said Al Ibrahim.
JR's best known works include Face 2 Face (2007), which saw the artist paste onto both sides of the separation wall and in several Palestinian and Israeli cities, with large portraits of ordinary citizens with the same occupation of both ethnicities and religions, forcing viewer to question who each individual person was and whether a difference could be made. In 2008, he launched a project titled 'Women Are Heroes', that showcased poignant and powerful portraits of physical and emotional survival amidst atrocity, documenting dignity of women in conflict zones and violent environments.
Qatar Museums has done pioneering work in the Middle East to bring art out into streets, notably commissioning Tunisian artist, El Seed, to create one of the biggest art installations ever works on a huge scale for the motorway tunnels in Doha, which El Seed called Calligraffiti, and Richard Serra's breathtaking East-West/West-East, which is found in Qatar's desert and spans over a kilometre in length.
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