“JR: Women,” Pace Gallery, 2023

Explore the iconic Women Are Heroes series through JR’s solo exhibition Women at Pace Gallery in Geneva. Marking JR’s first exhibit in Switzerland since 2008, the show presents a film and a suite of photographs that capture the strength of women.

For his Women Are Heroes project, JR pasted the portraits of women on the side of trucks, buildings, and temporary structures as an act of resistance and hope. In placing the lives of local women center stage, JR’s work provides space for them to freely express themselves however they choose. 

The Women exhibit showcases a diverse array of artworks that give the photographs from this project new life; it includes pastings on wood and corrugated sheets, ink on wood, as well as color prints.

In the piece 28 Millimètres, Women are Heroes, Rispah Atemba, Sierra Leone (2008), JR intimately captures the image of a smiling woman resting her head on her hands. Her face is jubilant and full of energy despite the political upheavals in her country, which, at the time, was recovering from civil war.

The artworks in the Women Are Heroes series underline the crucial role that women play in society and assert each subject’s dignity. Through an expressive and hopeful lens, the works celebrate the heroism of women around the world.