Portraits of refugees, asylum seekers, and Swiss people will be pasted on the side of a building in Geneva next week as part of the French artist JR's InsideOut project, which encourages people to take part. On World Refugee Day (June 20), a big painting will be made and put up with the help of Switzerland for UNHCR, the Swiss foundation of the UN Refugee Agency, and Hospice général, the public welfare organization in the canton of Geneva. Inside Out, which was started by JR in 2011, "helps people and communities make a statement by putting up large black-and-white portraits in public places." More than 500,000 people from 150 countries have worked on the projects, which are now made without JR's help. The Inside Out picture booth van will be at the Centre d'hébergement collectif Rigot in Geneva, which is a place for asylum-seekers and refugees. UNHCR mediators will be there to explain the project to the people living there.
In a statement, Switzerland for UNHCR says, "This action will emphasize the message of inclusion mirrored in this year's World Refugee Day theme: "Hope away from home: a world where refugees are always included." "The faces of the host and refugee communities will be mixed up on the facade, making it hard for people to tell who is who." Women, a solo show by JR, is on view at the Pace Gallery in Geneva until July 18. At the same time, his first solo show in Italy, called Déplacé.e.s, is on display at the Gallerie d'Italia in Turin until July 16. It features works that he made with people in refugee camps in Rwanda, Mauritania, Colombia, Ukraine, and Greece. This week, UNHCR released its Global Trends report for 2022, which showed that the number of people who will be forced to move will be the biggest ever recorded. The number is now about 110 million, which is 20 million more than it was two years ago. This is mostly because of the war in Ukraine and the crises in Afghanistan and Sudan.
Jean Dubreil