“If we cannot talk, at least we can see each other, as human beings. I think interaction is really important.”
Bookstore Athenaeum, Spui, Amsterdam
This is what a young Palestine woman said (more or less) in a video at the exhibition Face 2 Face, by JR and Marco at FOAM_Fotographymuseum Amsterdam. “JR wants to show the face of “the other”. He wants to surprise people and make them rethink the things they believe in, to show the resemblance in expression of those photographed and the complexity of the situation.”
This guy made pictures of people in Israel and Palestine doing the same job, but on different sides of the fence, asking them to pull their “kidsface”. That will make anyone laugh, and it will make anyone realise that in so many ways we are the same. On the picture above you can see two religious leaders. This approach will not bring us worldpeace, but I love the way the human side of people in conflicts is shown, and made visible on our streets.
It reminds me of another exhibition I visited last year in Amsterdam: Objects in Conflict, showing personal objects of people on different sides in the conflict. Video. It was not so much about these “daily” objects themselves, a shoe, a key chain, as it was about the personal story behind them. And these personal stories were meant to give a different view on the conflict, different from what we see on television every day. “Those experiences are what the conflict is really about, because they reflect the consequences of the play around power, land and money.“
[...] eyes watching you in Paris JR is back, with the eyes of women on walls and bridges this time. Women are heroes [...]