French Artist JR who recently installed his black and white trompe l’oeil in Paris has revealed that his next project will be at the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo. The announcement was made with a picture of the artist on horseback with the pyramids in the background.
“Proud to announce my next project at the Pyramids in October 2021,” he wrote, saying the artwork “might be a photo collage”. It appears that the artist visited the site in April this year.
The work is a commission by Art D’Egypte, a company organising a major contemporary art exhibition titled Forever is Now at the site of the pyramids that is planned to open in October. Art D’Egypte’s founder, Nadine Abdel Ghaffar in collaboration with independent curator Simon Watson is selecting artists for the show. Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass is appointed to map the trail where the artworks might be installed across the Giza Plateau.
JR has presented his project Inside Out in the region before in UAE. Setting up a colossal photo booth in Manarat Al Saadiyat, JR allowed visitors to have their portraits taken and A1 posters of it printed for free, after which they could paste the image outside the centre or wherever they chose.
For his projects, JR often creates large-scale optical illusions by installing images over landmarks or structures. His most recent creation is at the site of the Eiffel Tower, where the image makes it seem as though the Parisian landmark is perched on top of a canyon or ravine.
The artist has also completed projects that engage with local communities, such as the 2017 work Migrants, Picnic across the border wherein a pair of eyes – a monochrome photograph of a young undocumented immigrant in the US – stretched from the cities of Tecate, Mexico to Tecate, California.
Details on JR’s work for the Forever is Now exhibition are still scant, though it will likely bear the artist’s signature elements of his monochromatic palette and dramatic use of scale.