“I will never forget this day. Today I’m going to make the Louvre Pyramid disappear.”
So announced French street artist, JR, of his invitation from the Louvre museum to wrap their world-famous glass pyramid — designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei — with one of his monumental anamorphic images.
“It’s quite crazy being Parisian, passing the pyramid so often, then today realizing I can make changes to it and stick things on top of it to create my work,” he added.
An experienced multimedia artist who first started experimenting with graffiti at just 13-years of age, JR is best known for his large-scale photographic collages of people, which have graced the walls and floors of public spaces in cities across the world.
His images are personal and extremely close up and cleverly disguise the true representation of the picture in its details — like the ‘gun’ in his famous portrait of French-Malian man, Ladj Ly.
“Whether it be the Middle East, the favelas of Rio, slums of Kenya, New York, Le Havre or Shanghai, JR’s works leave no one indifferent, because they return our gaze and cut to the very heart of our innermost selves,” the Louvre says of his work.
Now JR has taken on one of the world’s best-known landmarks, unveiling the installation to the public on Wednesday.
JR’s Louvre installation will be on display to the public at the Louvre from May 25 to June 27, 2016.