French Street Artist JR to Cover the French Panthéon

French street artist and photographer JR has been commissioned by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (Center of National Monuments) to cover the Panthéon while it is being renovated with a tarp of images, featuring the faces of thousands of ordinary people. This initiative will put these anonymous people side by side with some of the most recognizable names in French history, including Voltaire, Marie Curie, and Victor Hugo, among others, whose ashes are held in the mausoleum.

According to French newspaper Le Monde,

Inspired by Inside Out, the interactive project that JR has been developing since 2011, individual portraits will be collected between February 25 and March 29 via website. Photos will also be collected in a ‘tour de France,’ during which the artist will travel by truck and make stops at eight national monuments, starting in front of the Saint Denis Basilica on March 5 and ending on March 29 in front of the Panthéon in Paris. At each stop, people can be photographed for free and decide whether or not they want to paste the photo on the monument. […] The installation will take place on April 22, and will help to revitalize a monument often overlooked by tourists.

Audrey Fair


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