German musician Patrice covers Nina Simone's "Ain't Got No (I Got Life)" to the art of JR. the video which was directed by Guillaume Gagniard via Cosa, is notable mostly for the inclusion of JR's artwork:
JR who was born near Paris in 1983, considers himself a photographer before being a street artist, and an activist before being an artist. whatever the hierarchy, his work originates from his passion to publicize the things society keep unsaid. to do so he turns normal people into the protagonists of his large posters, plastered in the environment they inhabit. his career starts in 2004 when, a few months before the beginning of the youth riots in Paris, he undertakes his project, "Portrait d'une Génération," and photographs the inhabitants of the suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois to then plaster their portraits on the façade of their subsidized homes. since, he's continued to find tensed and densely populated areas - such as the favellas of Rio, the Wall in Israel and Palestine, or Sierra Leone - to use his talent and bring the community together to think about issues of identity, poverty, sexism, boredom or violence...
find out more about JR's amazing Women Are Heroes. here's a 6 minute film summarizing the direction & impact of this beautiful project, which put into play the portraits of 70 women from around the world JR took then plastered by the Isle St. Louis in Paris, before taking this installation to Brussels & other cities... major props:
speaking of phenomenal women, going back to Nina Simone is de rigueur! Nina blows all others out of the water:
