Archive Fire: Women Are Heroes

25.10.10

Women Are Heroes

This year TED did something great: they awarded an unusual suspect the 2011 TED Prize. The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, "One Wish to Change the World." Designed to leverage the TED community's exceptional array of talent and resources, the Prize leads to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact. This year’s winner is the rebel French artist JR.

JR is renown among hardcore activist-artists as someone who uses his talents to evoke emotion, inspire discussion and challenge the status quo. JR exhibits his art freely in streets all over the world, catching the attention of those who would normally never visit a museum or gallery. JR’s photographs display on buses, in ghettos and among war-ravaged urban settings, all with an interest to highlight the indelible human capacity for joy, love and courage – and to explore notions of commitment, freedom, identity and limit.

Below is a short trailer presenting JR’s ‘Woman Are Heroes' project which he describes here:

The Women project wants to underline their pivotal role and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting them on the walls of their country. On the other hand, by posting the same images of these women in Western countries, the project allows everyone to feel concerned by their condition and connects, through art, the two different worlds.

Among the most moving aspects of the project is his work in Sierra Leone talking to women who were abused and raped by “soldiers” from both sides of the bloody civil war that has left the country broken and sometimes chaotic. Sierra Leone is still the third-lowest-ranked country on the Human Development Index and eighth-lowest on the Human Poverty Index, suffering from endemic corruption and suppression of the media.