JR's studio tour reveals submarine aquarium and train installation

JR, the French artist born in 1983, has become globally renowned for his large-scale photographic installations. Originally from Paris, he now resides in the United States and has created public works across France, Mexico, China, and Palestine. His most recent intervention at the Louvre involved a monumental optical illusion around I.M. Pei's Pyramid, using over 2,000 adhesive photographs to mark the pyramid's 30th anniversary. In a video produced by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) for its Artist Crib series, JR gives an impromptu tour of his studio, showcasing sketches, projects, and scale models of his installations. One notable project featured a train convoy in Kenya in 2009, transformed into a puzzle of faces that shifted with each pass. Among the curiosities in his studio is a real submarine converted into a large aquarium filled with fish.