INSIDE OUT turns images into global action from the North Pole to Malawi

Jamia Wilson

12 years ago

Since TED Prize winner JR launched his INSIDE OUT project in 2011, thousands of people have contributed their faces to the world’s largest public photo gallery. And now the project has made its way to the northernmost part of the Earth. A group of 16 environmental activists used the project to protest industrial destruction of the Arctic. They arranged a thousand portraits into the shape of an eye, placing the mosaic on the North Pole’s snowy canvas — almost like planting a flag. Their message: “Now we have the eyes of the world, at the top of the world, watching over the world.”

By displaying more than 120,000 paper portraits, citizens around the world have enlivened their cities by revealing their faces and the stories they represent. Here, more INSIDE OUT images that show ordinary citizens taking extraordinary action in communities worldwide.

Brooklyn, NY/Iran: After learning that only one person from Iran had participated in the world’s largest participatory art project, Saman Arbabi pasted the faces of 40 people who were killed in the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian presidential elections.

Malawi: In a show of solidarity, a small group of citizens in Mangochi, Malawi, set sail to honor the identities and stories of food and fishing laborers in their community.

London: Skaters in London banded together to save a beloved skatepark from closure by pasting their portraits at the Undercroft at the Southbank Centre — to protect a space that inspires and invigorates them.

Washington DC: INSIDE OUT’s 11M campaign uses participatory portraiture to inspire onlookers to look beyond statistics about undocumented immigrants and into the eyes, hearts and humanity of all people who “call America home.”