the essential
The photo truck of the artist JR is installed for two days in front of the Abattoirs museum. Toulouse residents are invited to have their portrait taken. Their photos will then be displayed on the museum’s gates.
French photographer JR is known for his giant exhibitions of portraits, stuck on buildings or symbolic sites, around the world. With his participatory art project “Inside out”, the artist with the hat and dark glasses notably covered the Pantheon in Paris with his portraits of anonymous people. He also roamed the villages of France with his friend, the director Agnès Varda, at the wheel of his photographic truck, meeting the inhabitants, which gave rise to an award-winning documentary at Cannes. More than 500,000 people were photographed in many countries. The idea is to “help individuals and communities around the world spread a message by displaying their portraits in the streets.”
Also read:
Bigflo & Oli: this is what the exhibition designed by Oli will look like at the Musée des Abattoirs, in Toulouse
This Thursday and Friday, his truck is installed in Toulouse, in front of the Abattoirs museum. We owe its presence to the rapper Oli, who asked JR to lend him as part of his “Imaginary Museum”, an exhibition of which he is the curator and which has just opened in the Toulouse museum. Until May 4, 2025, it presents works selected by the musician from the museum's reserves, personal objects and specific commissions. “Oli suggested that JR install his “Inside Out” project for the opening of the exhibition, explains Lauriane Gricourt, the general director of Abattoirs. He had never come to Toulouse before. The objective is to celebrate the city and its inhabitants.”
-Toulouse residents are invited to come and have their portrait taken in this truck, inside which a photo booth is integrated. The photos are printed immediately in large format, on poster paper. Then they are glued to wooden fences, specially installed on the museum gates. Nearly 150 portraits of Toulouse residents will be displayed on the Charles de Fitte avenues, in black and white, in the style of JR, recognizable among thousands. A renowned contribution for the “imaginary museum of Oli”, which also invites other renowned street art artists, such as Invader, Fafi, Dran, Reso or Onesiker.
France
