World renowned artist, JR has been showing off his mad skills again. We’ve recently been introduced to this artist as he works a lot with shipping containers. And, of course, we love shipping containers around here.
Back in 2007, JR started his Women are Heroes tributes. Below is an explanation from his website on why he started this adventure:
” To pay tribute to those who play an essential role in society, but who are the primary victims of war, crime, rape or political and religious fanaticism, I pasted portraits and eyes of women on a train in Kenya, a Favela in Brazil, a demolished house in Cambodia. They gave their trust and they asked for a single promise make my story travel with you. I did it: on the bridges of Paris and the walls of Phnom penh, the building of New York, etc.”
JR’s vision was to finish this project with a huge image on a vessel leaving port. And he did exactly that.
The container ship CMA CGM Magellan (which measures 365 metres long and can hold 13,900 twenty foot containers) was the canvas for this masterpiece. It took 10 days and 2600 strips of paper, along with the help of the dock workers to create this amazing floating piece of art.
JR notes on his website:
“I have no idea of what is in the other containers on the boat: stuff from people leaving a country to build a different life in another region, goods that will be transformed, worn, eaten in a different country. I have no idea where and how people will see this artwork but I am sure that some women far away will feel something on this day, and in Le Havre, we are exhausted and proud.”
Spend two minutes checking out this awesome short video here. It shows the containers being loaded onto the vessel, with it’s departure from Le Havre, France.
The vessel will sail via the Suez Canal and is destined for Asia.
