French street artist JR has been challenging the walls between people for a long time. He recently erected a massive image of a Latin American child looking over the U.S. border wall with Mexico. At a time when the U.S. policies toward immigration have include separating children from families and housing them in over-crowded detention centers, JR’s work brings a beautiful and powerful simplicity to humanize the issue.
JR has taken on other border projects as well. On the Israel Protection Barrier with Palestine (most of it on Palestinian land), he put up portraits of Palestinians on the Israeli side and Israelis on the Palestinian side. It’s hard to guess which portraits are from which group.
The installation in Mexico is a temporary one that will be in place for only 30 days. But the image will last a long time, including at our website. JR believes that if we can see one another with new eyes free of prejudice we might make the world a better place.
In 2015 JR set up a project on Ellis Island in New York to explore the life of the 19th Century immigrants coming into the United States. He also explored immigration in his own country of France putting up portraits of rioting immigrants that show how they have been culturally assimilated and how they still remain apart from the larger society.
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