The latest JR installation is strong and powerful. Meet Kikito, a Mexican baby boy.
The place: the US-Mexico border fence. Which way is the baby looking over? You would have guessed it – Kikito is looking over the border from the Mexican side.
The daily struggle for Mexicans to cross the US border
This new installation,a huge scaffolding installation, tells us about the struggle of millions of Mexicans to cross the border and enter the US.
Kikito is depicted as happily playing while looking over the US side of the infamous border wall but neither him nor his family can see that, neither him nor his parents can cross the border – and this is the point of this artwork.
Each time I’ve seen walls that have caught my attention, or that I’ve heard about a lot in the media, they would stick in my mind. I would even dream about it. When Trump started to talk a lot about a wall along the Mexican border, one day I woke up and I saw a kid looking over the wall.
I was wondering, What is this kid thinking? What would any kid think? We know that a one-year-old doesn’t have a political vision, or any political point of view. He doesn’t see walls as we see them.
JR
Up until the 2nd October
If you are lucky to be in Southern California between now and the 2nd October, here is the exact location. We would strongly recommend to swing by to see that.
About JR
JR is a French artist who has been working on his “Inside Out” project for quite a few years. He travels the world in his photo-booth truck and snap portraits of people he meets along the way. Then, he pastes them onto buildings or walls – or on scaffoldings in this instance.
