Brooklyn Talks: JR and Baratunde Thurston
Channel: Brooklyn Museum
Date: 08/10/2019

In celebration of our special exhibition JR: Chronicles, JR discusses the intersection of his artistic practice, community, and civic discourse, in conversation with Emmy-nominated writer, activist, and comedian Baratunde Thurston.

Over the past two decades, JR has expanded the meaning of public art through his ambitious projects that give visibility and agency to a broad spectrum of people around the world. Showcasing murals, photographs, videos, films, dioramas, and archival materials, JR: Chronicles is the first major exhibition in North America of works by the French-born artist. Working at the intersections of photography, social engagement, and street art, JR collaborates with communities by taking individual portraits, reproducing them at a monumental scale, and wheat pasting them—sometimes illegally—in nearby public spaces.

This soaring multimedia installation traces JR’s career from his early documentation of graffiti artists as a teenager in Paris to his large-scale architectural interventions in cities worldwide to his more recent digitally collaged murals that create collective portraits of diverse publics. The centerpiece of the exhibition is The Chronicles of New York City, a new epic mural of more than one thousand New Yorkers that is accompanied by audio recordings of each person’s story. All of the projects on view honor the voices of everyday people and demonstrate JR’s ongoing commitment to community, collaboration, and civic discourse.

JR: Chronicles is curated by Sharon Matt Atkins, Director of Exhibitions and Strategic Initiatives, and Drew Sawyer, Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator, Photography, Brooklyn Museum.

Leadership support for this exhibition is provided by Clara Wu Tsai.

Major support for this exhibition is provided by the Ford Foundation.

Generous support is provided by the Brooklyn Museum’s Contemporary Art Committee, the FUNd, Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia, and Perrotin. Additional support is provided by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Emily Glasser and William Susman, the Hayden Family Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., Pace Gallery, and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

This exhibition is part of Brooklyn Falls for France, a cultural season organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and FACE Foundation in partnership with Brooklyn venues.

This event took place at the Brooklyn Museum 
on Thursday, October 3, 2019.