JR at the Opera again
RETOUR À LA CAVERNE
A work by the artist JR, evoking Plato’s cave, a place of knowledge and transmission, graces the façade of the Opera Garnier, another place of knowledge and transmission.
As part of the restoration of the Palais Garnier, the Opera national de Paris invited the artist JR to decorate the scaffolding covering the monument with two successive installations. (Lucky for us because we missed the first one!)
This project is a continuation of the artist’s work of enormous pieces that have taken over various iconic sites around the world such as the Louvre Museum, the Trocadero esplanade, the Farnese Palace in Rome, the banks of the Seine, the favelas of Rio and bunkers of the WWII Atlantic Wall, just to name a few, each time as an invitation for viewers to change their perspective.
Like an opera libretto, the artist metamorphoses the façade in two acts, the first in September and the second in November.
Act I, which has sadly just ended, was JR’s interpretation of the monumental façade of the Temple of Music and Dance, revealing the entrance to an immense cavern opening onto a perspective of rock and light. JR’s cavern was a visual evocation of the origins of ballet and opera, when song and dance celebrated the divinities of archaic Greece in caves. (It wasn’t until the 6th century B.C. that these celebrations were brought closer to the cities, where real tribunes and bleachers were dug to bring together all the citizens.)
Playing on the romantic codes of the 19th century, in the style of painter Hubert Robert, but also with references to the great stage sets of operas by Berlioz or Wagner, the Napoleon III architectural elements seemed to be caught in a double temporal movement. At once the ruin of a past that would see Parisian monuments subjected to their own fragility and questioning their eternal character and on the other hand a glimpse of a work in permanent reconstruction, as attested by the numerous scaffolding structures, a nod to the real and necessary work going on at the Opera and that physically supports this new installation.
Act II is called Dans la caverne and will take place in November.
The collage on the building facade will be replaced by a stage curtain, whose conception was entrusted to the Maisons d’art at le 19M, notably the embroiderer Montex. And, like with many of JR’s installations (think of the Photomaton Inside Out collage), you can contribute. Between mid-September and the end of October, visit the Mano Habilis project at Galerie du 19M where the general public can try their hand at embroidery, free of charge, and thus contribute to this work of art. Be sure to sign up in advance.
this is not the first collaboration between JR and the Paris Opera, that’s why we titled our article
JR at the Opera again
Also Enjoy Dancers on the roof.
