JR and his inside out project strikes back in Paris, in the Pantheon!

JR and his inside out project strikes back in Paris, in the Pantheon!

JR announced yesterday the special project "Au Pantheon", part of his ongoing inside out project that we talked about last year. JR is an anonymous photographer and artist who calls himself a "photograffeur". He is known for his large black-and-white photographic images pasted in public locations such as trains, bridges, buildings, buses, rooftops often shot in dangerous places such as the slums of Kenya, or the favelas in Rio. ©jr ©jr The Pantheon is located in the Latin Quarter, close to our boutique hotels the Villa d'Estrées and Residence des Arts. The Pantheon was first built in 1790 as a church. In 1791, the National Constituent Assembly ordered the structure to be changed into a mausoleum to honor the greatest Frenchmen. Since then, the mausoleum has been filled with 73 bodies (Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Alexandre Dumas, Rousseau...). Until a couple of days ago, only one of the honored dead was a woman: Marie Curie. France has just announced it will add two more women to the Pantheon. Both women actively fought with the french Resistance during second world war. ©Jean-Pierre Lavoie ©Jean-Pierre Lavoie Going back to JR, the Pantheon is currently undergoing some important renovations. The dome is 82 meters high, in total about 10 500 m2 of stone will be cleaned and 6000 m2 restored. The government chose JR to "decorate" the construction site with his work of art. The faces of thousands of ordinary people will be on show in a huge art installation. ©Jerome Delay/AP ©Jerome Delay/AP From today till the 29th of March be part of the special @insideoutproject installation in this iconic French Monument ! Send your portrait to www.au-pantheon.fr and enter the Pantheon!! You can also get yourself photographed from March 5th to March 29th in JR's insideout truck who will travel around France and stop in eight national monuments. The pictures will be displayed starting April 22nd. #insideoutproject #AuPantheon http://www.au-pantheon.fr/fr/