Giant collages of black and white photographs, the French artist JR has made a specialty of them. He thus adorned the forecourt of the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre pyramid. This time he tackles another pyramid, having fun becoming a sort of specialist.
His subject this time is much larger and older. But there is a link, because as at the Louvre, the artist plays at deceiving the gaze. JR installed his collage a few tens of meters from the pyramid of Cheops. The photograph of an arm comes out of the ground, in the hand an image of the pyramid on which the point is detached from the base. So by taking a precise point of view, an optical illusion is created.
“The pyramidion, the top of the pyramid floats and we see the sky through, describes JR. It seems impossible but it is possible, he explains. There is a point of view for that which is called anamorphosis. See the monument again just like Christo did in Paris with the Arc de Triomphe, all of a sudden we no longer see the monument in the same way.. I don’t know if we can say the same thing about my work here but in any case, the time of a month, the time of this installation, that will allow us to say for a while that the pyramid was decomposed, it was floating. “
And here is the levitating pyramid. JR is not the only artist to participate in this festival, however. Ten contemporary plastic artists and sculptors have invested this Giza plateau with monumental installations, based on this idea of taking art out of the museum. This is indeed the approach of the organization Art of Egypt behind this event. “Art is considered elitist, especially when you’re in galleries. It intimidates a lot of people. But then, to bring works of art to historic places to the public, it’s interesting.”, explains its founder Nadine Ghaffar.
“You don’t pay a ticket to enter, you go to the pyramids and you see the works of art like that. The audience comes and there is this synergy and this interaction which is sublime.”
Nadine Ghaffar, founder of Art d’Égypteto franceinfo
Art of Egypt is not at its first attempt. During the three previous editions, other emblematic places of the Egyptian capital had served as a setting for works of art. That of JR and the nine other artists exhibiting this year will remain in place until November 7. (Other installations to discover on the Instagram profile of Art d’Égypte).