JR Brings Migrant Portraits to Turin Museum in First Solo Show

French artist JR (born 1983 in Paris) opens his first museum exhibition at Gallerie d'Italia Intesa Sanpaolo in Turin, Italy, featuring his ongoing project Déplacé·e·s, which documents refugees and political migrants. The show includes monumental photographic banners and video storyboards from crisis zones including war-torn Ukraine, Mugombwa refugee camp in Rwanda, Mbera camp in Mauritania, Cúcuta in Colombia, and Lesbos in Greece. A participatory performance in Turin involved 1,400 people creating five portraits of refugee children. The exhibition begins with a giant eye printed on the museum entrance and culminates in an immersive underground hall. JR, who rose to fame at age 18 documenting the 2005 French banlieue riots, describes himself not as a politically engaged artist or street artist but as "someone who gets others involved." The show marks the first time his traveling photographic installations are gathered in a single museum. JR previously had his first Italian exhibition at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano and has created public art interventions in Florence, Rome, and Milan.