The summer-long Les Rencontres d’Arles photography festival in Arles, France is proving to be an excellent setting for the TED-prize-winning artist JR to generate excitement about his Inside Out global art project. JR announced the project in March, when he accepted the 2011 TED Prize at the TED Conference. (TED brings together curious and inspiring thinkers from Technology, Entertainment, and Design and serves as a clearinghouse of “ideas worth spreading.”)
Along with the cash award of $100,000, the TED Prize includes “one wish to change the world.” JR told TED conference attendees “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project. And together, we will we will turn the world…Inside Out.”
The goal of the Inside Out art project is to transform messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. JR, the low-profile street artist known for his large-scale graffiti murals, is challenging everyone worldwide to use black-and-white photographic portraits to discover, reveal, and share their untold stories and images.
Anyone around the world can participate simply by uploading a photo to the Inside Out website. JR’s team then converts the image into a poster and sends it back for you to exhibit in your own community. On the Inside Out website, you can see that portraits are being posted in office windows, on fences, on the sides of abandoned buildings, and on dozens of other publicly visible sites around the world.
After JR talked about the art project at Les Rencontres d’Arles, he urged attendees to visit a unique onsite photo installation in which they could have their portraits taken for free and printed for display within their communities.
Because of HP’s long relationship with organizers of Les Recontres d’Arles, an HP Designjet Z6200 large-format inkjet photo printer is being used to output the portraits. The printer is out of sight, behind a wall on a beam 12 meters (40 feet) above the photo-festival floor. As each portrait is output, it emerges from a slot in the wall and flutters down to the people waiting below.
According to Philippe Serenon of HP’s Graphic Solutions Business, festival attendees have been lining up to have their portraits taken so they can take part in the art project. They don’t have to wait long to receive their poster-size prints because the HP Designjet Z6200 was built to quickly and reliably produce a steady stream of large-format photographs (up to 60 inches wide) without compromising on image quality.
The photo installation will be open for the duration of the festival, which opened July 4 and runs until September 18.
François Martin, marketing director, Graphic Solutions Business, HP, says HP is pleased to be taking part in the Inside Out Project photo installation at Les Rencontres d’Arles: “The HP Designjet Z6200 delivers high-quality large-format prints that participants will be proud to take home and exhibit. Photography in all its forms is a fantastic way to express emotion and humanity. This is what HP wants to support.”
Last month at TEDGlobal, JR launched the Inside Out YouTube channel to document his work and the work of project participants around the world. Inside Out participants have already started uploading videos showing where their portraits are being hung. These submissions will be used for the creation of a film about the project.
In a post on the TedPrize blog, TED Prize Director Amy Novoratz notes that JR’s TED Prize wish is reaching every corner of the planet – from the South Bronx and Brooklyn to Japan, Pakistan, Brazil, and Germany. She says, “Imagine what we’ll see when Inside Out Project participants begin sharing their films and perspectives on this collective channel.”
If you would like to participate in the Inside Out art project, visit the project's website: www.insideoutproject.net
LINKS
Inside Out: A Global Art Project
YouTube: Inside Out Project Channel
YouTube: Inside Out Project in Les Rencontres Arles Photographie
TEDPrize: Announcing the Inside Out Web Series and YouTube Channel
HP Named Printing Supplier of Photo Installation at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2011
