JR’s Wrinkles of the City invade Berlin

Over fifteen building walls and facades have been pasted by the French artist JR in the framework of his project “The Wrinkles of the City“. After Cartagena, Shanghai, L.A. and Havana, Berlin has become the fifth city to host the project.

JR portrays older people who have lived through changes and upheavals of their own city with a 28 mm lens and converts his black and white clichés into large format posters. With these pictures, he makes huge outdoor installations using a pasting technique, then mounts them on building facades, roofs or public transport.

The customized edifices are far from being randomly chosen. Their history is of course taken into consideration and so is that of the portrayed inhabitants, their environment and living conditions. Their individual story and what they have been through is supposed to show up in their facial expressions just as Berlin history does on the buildings where JR puts up the portraits.

Born in France in 1983, JR is one of the most innovative contemporary artists of his generation. He currently lives between Paris and New York City. His pasted black and white portraits on walls all over the world have made him famous.

The current Berliner project has been led in collaboration with the Henrik Springmann gallery. But the visitor has to hurry up a bit. Pictures weather out fast and are due to disappear, exactly like the pictured people who one day or another will pass away.

This project finds a special echo in a country that is rapidly ageing whereas its capital is particularly known for being a youth paradise. Therefore, special attention to older people is even more appropriate. This is certainly the message that JR wants to pass on to us.

Pictures’ locations can be found on the gallery’s Facebook page. Read about JR’s Inside Out Project at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His mural on the High Line was chosen at one of the Top 10 NYC Street Art Hotspots by Art Nerd New York.