Artist JR Shakes Up The Dance World With Immersive New Installation

JR in his NYC studio. Image courtesy of [NYCballet.com](http:// http://www.nycballet.com/).

While next week NYC's Lincoln Center will gather the world's Style Class for NYFW, this January the main star of the famed cultural institution is French artist JR. Best known for his large scale installation INSIDE OUT, in which the creator gathered more than 172,000 people in nearly 8,600 locations as part of an innovative new form of portraiture, the project was a call for "the creation of a global art project with the potential to change the world."

For his newest initiative, a collaboration with the New York City Ballet, the creator has produced a 6,500-square-foot composite photo of NYCB dancers inside the legendary Koch Theater. When seen from above, the installation gives the appearance of a giant eye:

Recently we were able to catch up with JR at the Koch Theater for one of the first performances of his ongoing collaboration.

The Creators Project: Where does your inspiration come from in terms of the modern world?

My inspiration comes from people and how to involve them in the work and how to create interactions within the work. So it doesn't matter what the context is, whether it's Kenya, Brazil, or here, it always has a connection. Here it was about involving the whole company, and the image I create through the interaction, and how people interact with that same image.

You usually take pictures and then the work stands on its own. Was it interesting to have it be a live piece that's ever evolving? 
For me part of the work is that it's not really finished, because though it's a final piece for me it's actually just the beginning [for the work itself]. So what you might capture with your phone or camera might be better than the actual original image, and the shadows of people walking on it [the vinyl surface]. I like that purpose, and I like the fact that there's something better that can come out of it. You know like, the snow made it [the exterior installation at the front of the Koch Theater] so much nicer to see it outside, and stuff like that you can never plan. You might have the creativity or whatever, but nature or human interaction are always more creative than you.

Besides your camera is there any other sort of technology used in your work? 
Not all the time. It's really hand work. I mean if you look at the making of this project, I was really trying to look inside, and see how things worked--and it was really for me the process that was the most interesting part.

What's your next project?
I'm working on different ones, but I don't always like to know what's next. I go by a gut feeling, or what I'm challenged by. In the beginning it was always like "what's next?" and if you had asked me a year ago what's next I would never have told you I'd be doing this. But I like to even be surprised by what comes.

And will you still keep photpgraphy as a major part of it? 
As a medium, but somtimes it's not my own photography. Like in I_nside Out Project_ [where the photos were actually taken by the participants] it didn't matter. Today everyone can be photographer, it's what we do with the image--there's something about it.

What would you want the audience to walk away from this with?
I want them to walk away with stronger images than the ones I did. I want them to create something that they actually share.

Was it wonderful meeting with all the dancers?
Yeah, it was wonderful working with all the performers and artists like that. It was amazing, and I got those positions and those intersactions and poses so fast--and you know, they're so used to doing it that I had to push them into doing not ballet poses and stricter poses. So that was one of the big things for them. Most of the movements are not perfect at all because they weren't ballet moves, which is about strictness. This was about the common image to create that eye.

I actually heard this was the first ballet that you ever saw. It seems like a pretty extraordinary introduction--do you think you'll start becoming a regular? 
Yeah, I like it. I want to choreograph one, and do something on that. Really just challenge myself and see if I can make them.

They must have learned a lot from having someone who's not in the dance world. 
It was definitely a sharing, learning process.

Do you think they taught you anything about it?
Yeah, I learned so much, definitely. I knew nothing about this world, so I'm still learning and might spend some time acting or going to rehearsals.

Was this more of an evolved process than INSIDE OUT? 
It was really different because INSIDE OUT is a project i'm not involved in, and here I was 100% involved from the begining to the end. So I love both as much, but it's not the same creative process.

So you would you come to the Ballet everyday?
Since I've done it? Yeah. We try to document as much as possible.

Are you going to turn it into a film?
Yeah, we shot a lot so maybe we'll do much more with the images with film. I'd love to actually love to, because we've documented it so much. I'd be so fascinated to see what it would [look like].

In addition to the main installation, 10 close-up photographs appliqued to wood appear on the ground floor of the theater. The installation will be on display through NYCB's 2014 Winter Season. The David H. Koch Theater will also hold one week of open hours for the general public to view the exhibition free of charge on the following dates: Sunday, February 2 through Sunday, February 9, with hours on Sundays from 10 AM to 1 PM; Monday to Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM; and Saturday from 10 AM to noon.

During three special performances — January 23, February 7, 13 — every audience member will receive a takeaway created specifically for this event.

NYCB Art Series is part of an ongoing initiative to commission contemporary artists to create original works inspired by the NYCB. In the past the team has worked with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, and many others.

Below, JR takes us on a tour through the installation process:

For more on JR's work, check out his 2011 acclaimed TED talk:

JR also currently has an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, as well Dallas Contemporary. The artist will also be releasing a book about the Unframed Project in Marseille this month, and has Inside Out photobooth trucks in Dallas and in Paris.

All images courtesy of the New York City Ballet.