The French artist JR presented his latest performance in New York this Sunday, which powerfully illustrates the fight of Iranian women against the Tehran regime by representing the face of a woman who died during the demonstrations and her hair shaped by volunteers.
“As an artist, you often ask yourself how you can help causes that are so just and that, somewhere, care a lot of people in the world, a lot of women in the world, especially right now and in Iran,” Jean explained. René. , better known by his stage name JR.
After several weeks of reflection, he decided to call on volunteers to compose the hair of the young Nika Shakarami, who died at the age of 16 during the demonstrations unleashed in Iran by the death of Mahsa Amini, on September 16, after being detained by the Iranian moral policeman who judged that she was not wearing the headscarf correctly.
An aunt of Nika Shakarami sent the French artist one of the last photos published by the young woman on social networks, which has since been deleted.
This photo “meant a lot to the family”
JR chose Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, an island in the middle of the East River that runs through eastern Manhattan, opposite the United Nations headquarters, to present his work on Sunday. Thanks to this group of volunteers, more than a hundred in total, Nika’s hair comes back to life to the rhythm of the icy wind that blows over New York.
This photo “meant a lot to the family,” said the artist who presented his work for the first time in Brazil.
“On our small scale, it’s one of the rare things that we can do and so to create an image like that, somewhere, draws attention to also show that on the other side of the world, we think of all these women. and all these people who are fighting in the place”, explained this committed artist, who has already presented works around the separation wall between Mexico and the United States, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or more recently the war in Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
