Inside Out Project

INSIDE OUT Group Action in Israel, "Yalla"

INSIDE OUT is a global participatory art project, initiated by the French photographer JR.

After winning the TED prize in 2011, JR expressed his wish to “change the world”^[1] by turning it 'inside out'. The project, inspired by JR's large format street pastings, is open for anyone to participate, anywhere in the world. The idea behind it is to place an emphasis on the people and their stories behind each action, or cause. Besides the printing of the portraits, the participants have full control of both the creative process (taking their pictures) to the pasting process (the installation of the posters). By using strictly black and white portraits, which are printed and then pasted in an exterior space, each group action can make a statement in the form of a public artwork and share their message with the rest of the world.

Every INSIDE OUT group action is documented, archived and exhibited on the project's website online. As of April 2014, 900 group actions have taken place, and nearly 200,000 posters have been printed and shipped to more than 110 countries. The INSIDE OUT project has traveled from Ecuador to Nepal, from Mexico to Palestine, inspiring group actions on varied themes such as hope, diversity, violence awareness and climate change.^[2]

Notable projects

Many individuals have become ardently involved in the INSIDE OUT Project. According to Raffi Khatchadourian of the New Yorker, “A participant in Iran, at grave personal risk, had posted an image of a defiant-looking woman beneath a state sponsored billboard” and “Russian gay rights activists protested with the images and were briefly imprisoned in Moscow.”^[3]

INSIDE OUT led to heated results in Tunisia where installations began just as dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali stepped down. Participants pasted photos over posters of Ben Ali on an old fort.^[4][5]

In another notable group in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico 1180 portraits line the walls to show the underrepresented faces of a city known for crime. In Georgetown, Guyana 601 portraits show the eyes of Guyanese children who have witnessed acts of violence against their mothers, their sisters, or themselves. 389 portraits in Haiti mark a project called “Rising Souls.” In Caracas, Venezuela, 220 portraits show mothers who have lost a child because of violence.^[6]

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe from North Dakota also became involved in Inside Out Project, posting photos of themselves around their community. JR posts their faces in his typical large-scale style over New York City. “I’ve just basically made an encore of their work in the city.” he said in an interview. He calls the New York pastings, “a small window into the project.”^[1]

Greenpeace International's "Save the Arctic" group action in the North Pole

In April 2013, a team from Greenpeace International launched an expedition to the North Pole in an effort to Save the Arctic. Their purpose was to declare the region protected for those who live there and all life on Earth, and to do so they created a large Inside Out group action. They used over a thousand portraits of members of the movement to make up a giant eye which they printed as a flag. They placed the flag on the North Pole, in a statement of defiance against destructive industry in the Arctic.

In April 2014, an extremely powerful action was created in Pakistan. The purpose of this action was to confront American drone operators that refer to those that are killed by the drones as “bug splats." They wanted to put a face to the innocents that are killed by drones, and remind those flying above who they are affecting. As they state, "Now, when viewed by a drone camera, what an operator sees on his screen is not an anonymous dot on the landscape, but an innocent child victim’s face." They plan to use the material afterwards as roofing for nearby villages. ^{[7] [8]}

Photobooths

To get more people involved in the project JR also set up large photobooths in different locations — two in Paris, France,^[9] one in Arles, France and one in Abu Dhabi. Following these installations, mobile photo booth trucks were constructed for cross-country tours. Each truck features a built-in photo booth and printer, making the Inside Out process more immediate. Participants can receive their posters as soon as the pictures are taken. So far, the trucks have toured the United States and France.^{[10] [11]}

One of INSIDE OUT'S largest actions to date was in New York City, and was created by the INSIDE OUT Team. From April to May 2013, the team built an American photo-booth truck that traveled first to the outer boroughs of the city and finally to Times Square for the final installation. The action was an effort to portray a collective view of New Yorkers after Hurricane Sandy, and challenge the advertising of the busiest place in the nation with art. The posters were pasted in the communities of the outer boroughs, in Times Square itself, and citywide. Nearly 6,000 posters were printed.

Another ambitious photo booth action was Inside Out 11M, a nationwide initiative aimed at creating a portrait of America that spoke for the 11 million undocumented immigrants inhabiting the United States. Inside Out 11M aimed to represent the diversity and unity of people that call America home, reminding us that behind the numbers are real human stories. From July 16th to October 8th 2013, both the East and West coast trucks visited 20 different cities across the country.

^[12]

In France, the Center of National Monuments collaborated with the Inside Out Project for a special,patriotic installation that would wrap around the Panthéon, Paris. The idea of this nationwide action is to encapsulate the humanistic and universal values embodied by the historical monument.

Throughout the month of March 2014, self-portraits were collected for the installation via the project’s website, where everyone around the world was welcome to participate and submit their photos.

Additionally, to gather more portraits for the project, from March 5th to the 29th of 2014, the photo booth truck visited the following sights:

The Basilica of Saint-Denis, Château and ramparts of the City of Carcassonne, the Château d'Angers, the Carnac Stones, the Towers of La Rochelle, the Palais du Tau in Reims, the Villa Savoye in Poissy, the Hôtel de Sully in Paris, and finally the Pantheon.

The portraits that best represent the diversity of the contemporary world will be used to create a mosaic that will wrap around the monument. The goal is to utilize all of the portraits collected in the final work, which will be inaugurated on April 22, 2014. ^[13]

The Process

It being a global participatory art project, makes it easy for anyone around the world to participate in it, it does not take much to get started. In order to begin this process, simply begin with creating an account on their website, InsideOut Project. After that is completed, submit a group action, it can be anywhere from wanting to spread joy and celebrate life to protesting a serious issue in a community. There must be at least 5 people to an issue or statement to start off, the group leader must then send the portraits to the INSIDE OUT studio, which will soon mail back 36x53 black and white posters to the group leader and he or she will then post them in a public location of their choice. The exact rules of submitting a group action can be found in the Group Action Guidelines pdf. ^[14]

Film

Official Poster for Inside Out Film

A film documenting the project was recently produced, "Inside Out: The People's Art Project". It was selected as an official Documentary Feature Spotlight at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, where the film premiered in Chelsea, New York City. The film then debuted exclusively on HBO in the US, and will be available until October. The film was directed by Alistair Siddons and produced by Emile Abinal.

References

External links

• Official website
• TED talk (video), JR, 2011
• INSIDE OUT, Official Trailer