Présence intime dans des espaces publics: portrait et regard dans l’art de la rue de JR

Abstract

In my paper, I analyze a key work of a contemporary French photographer and urban activist who works in the context of the street art. The film in question, entitled Women are heroes, describes an artistic project of the author “JR” who took photos of women’s faces in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and posted them all around the city. The project focuses on the dialogue of ethics, aesthetics, and politics of personal images and histories placed in public spaces. According to my hypothesis, the focus of the photos and the stories is the gaze of women as they are presented by the young man, JR, through an altruistic gesture. They are par excellence examples of the representation of irreducible “otherness”, which I call “altruistic feminism”.