In 2007, French street artist JR, who arrived in Naples with his Inside Out project at the first Sky Arte festival in May, embarked on a trip to Africa, in order to highlight the dignity of women forced to live in extreme poverty among civil wars, violence and all kinds of everyday battles. Women Are Heroes, an artistic project that became a film, took him to Kenya, Brazil, India, and Cambodia over the course of four years. The protagonists are women who struggle boldly despite the incredible difficulties of their lives. JR portrays their faces on huge posters, which he puts up in the most diverse locations: the sides of the train wagons in Kenya, the barracks of Brazilian favelas, and buildings in cities like New York or Paris. Photographic evidence becomes a message of hope in changing the social contexts of extreme poverty and violence in which some women have to live. The original soundtrack is by two famous trip-hop names: Massive Attack and Patrice Bart Williams.

 

 

Born in Paris in 1983, he studied at Stanislas High School before starting his career as an adolescent graffiti artist. His pseudonym represents the initials of his name (Jean René) and alludes to the main character of the American TV series, Dallas. Active since 2004, he is one of the most renowned international street artists, author of projects such as Portrait d'une génération (2004-2006), Face 2 Face (2007) and Inside Out (2011-2017). 

 

Video introduction by Giacomo Raffaelli