French artist JR invests the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

• Tweeter

• republish

Collage of photos by the French artist JR in Berlin. The 25-meter high installation is at the center of the festivities of October 3, 2018, on the occasion of the anniversary of the reunification of Germany in 1990. Photo taken on September 28, 2018. Odd ANDERSEN / AFP

This Wednesday, October 3, on the occasion of the anniversary of the reunification of Germany in 1990, JR is the author of a giant photo installation in Berlin around the Brandenburg Gate. With this artistic gesture of 800 000 euros, the French artist revives for a few days the enthusiasm during the fall of the Berlin Wall in the same place.

Berlin, November 10, 1989. The wall that separates the city for 28 years fell the night before. The old frontier, symbol of the Cold War between East and West, is still physically present. But the fear is gone. The enthusiastic crowd takes the wall by storm.

In front of the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of the division of the city and Germany, there are dozens to climb on the old border. An unthinkable act a few hours earlier. The East German police watch these scenes of jubilation without flinching at what the GDR called " the anti-fascist wall of protection ".

The price of the notoriety of the French artist

It is this shot that the French artist JR used for a giant installation where the picture was taken. On the occasion of the celebration of German Unity celebrating reunification on 3 October 1990, the Brandenburg Gate was flanked on the west side by a scaffolding on which the JR photo installation was hung. The artist won a competition organized by the city of Berlin whose opacity has been criticized in the press. The notoriety of the French artist and the images that will circulate around the world of the Brandenburg Gate probably explain the choice of leaders. The installation costs 800,000 euros out of the 4.5 million that the city of Berlin will spend for the festivities of October 3rd.

JR had already worked in the past in Berlin with gigantic portraits on facades. The 35-year-old artist has made a name for himself internationally with spectacular projects evoking exclusion and repression. Between Mexico and the United States, we have seen a child looking across the border and trying to cross it. JR has also worked in Rio at the Olympic Games, at the Louvre in Paris and in New York.