"JR - Déplacé∙e∙s," Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, 2024

JR - Déplacé∙e∙s addresses the unprecedented displacement of people around the globe. Having first debuted in Turin, Italy, at Gallerie d'Italia in 2023, the exhibition has traveled to Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm. On view until January 11th, 2025, it marks JR’s first solo show in the Nordic region. Plan your visit.  

The works included in the exhibition are created from JR’s 2022 Déplacé∙e∙s project, during which he traveled to crisis zones and refugee camps in Ukraine, Rwanda, Mauritania, Colombia, and Greece. With the help of the local community in each place, he unfurled an image of a refugee child on a 45-meter-long banner. The exhibition brings the images of all these children together, sharing the stories of Valeriia, Thierry, Andiara, Jamal, Ajara, among others, to give names and faces to the young people forced to flee their homes.

Through life-size wooden sculptures depicting kids running, the enormous banners of the children with their huge smiling faces, and a 360° video projection showing scenes from refugee camps, JR - Déplacé∙e∙s presents the resilience and spirit of communities too often dehumanized by the media. JR’s photography, films, and in-situ installations all prompt reflection on the increasing prevalence of refugee camps in our globalized world, compelling viewers to confront and engage with this ongoing crisis. 

JR has long addressed the issue of borders and migration in his work; the exhibition at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern includes additional pieces that explore these themes. It also features two ink on wood artworks from his recent Les Enfants d’Ouranos series. 

To mark the opening of JR - Déplacé∙e∙s on May 23rd, JR brought his collaborative artistic process to the streets of Stockholm. Over two hundred people gathered to unfurl the image of five-year-old refugee Valeriia in an act of solidarity with Ukraine. Further, over the course of three days, over 600 people stepped into the Inside Out Photobooth to take their portraits. Their images, printed as black-and-white posters, were installed in Sergel torg outside the museum in a celebration of the community’s diversity.