JR has been making art for the masses for years. Since starting off as your classic, teenage, inner-city graffiti artist, tagging every available surface with his friends in Paris, JR has since expanded his desire to personalise environments to invoke social change. His work in Paris gave a voice to the ostracised black youths of the city, in Buenos Aires he gave the female residents of the shanty towns a sense of community and ownership by plastering their faces 10 ft high, and in the Kibera Slum, Kenya he not only empowered women, he also waterproofed their roofs using printed lino; vastly improving their quality of life both practically and socially. This guy and his team are my heroes. They make art accessible and show how, even if art can't change the world, it can change someone's life. Their approach is simply to make people proud of themselves and their community by allowing them to be seen and take claim of their environment. JR's TEDtalk, where he was granted a 'wish' for the next year, explains his method, views and mentality brilliantly. Give it a watch!
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