JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

A linear explanation, said with a solemn expression, represents the heart of the collaboration between Alice Rohrwacher and JR for the work "Omelia Contadina" (Country Homily), exhibited at the Galleria Continua in San Gimignano. It is no coincidence that the director, daughter of a beekeeper, and the photographer-performer, have come to conceive a funeral of the peasant world in the form of an artistic performance. "Omelia Contadina" is a mixed-media representation of a funeral procession, of a farewell to an ancient world of knowledge, respect for the rhythms of nature, and biodiversity. Large scale human figures, photographs in black and white of men and women are carried by a crowd of people to their burial. This short film premiered at the 77th Venice International Film Art Exhibition (2020). It was the first step of a set of performances in which these "funeral processions" have sanctioned a symbolic break between man and nature. (1)

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

The video resulting from this collaboration is the keystone of the entire exhibition at the Galleria Continua. Aerial photographs of the performance, produced on various supports, including plaster and glass, accompany the visitor to the screening room and to the cinema-theater room where JR has conceived a site-specific installation of one of the figures used for the short film. The gigantic photograph of a woman, inclined to look at whoever enters, aims to involve everyone who approaches and transforms the exhibition's visitor into one of the actors who accompanied these "images-people" to their burial.

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

This work represents the heart of the poetics of JR, an artist known throughout the world for his "photo-graffiti." The first exhibition room in Galleria Continua contains a long journey through images, in which the entire surface of the walls has been used to represent the projects that the artist has created over the years. The walls are the canvas on which the "photo-graffeur" composes his installations harmonizing black and white photographs with places. Provocations, beauty, performance, politics - all these elements make these blatant projects inclusive of the attention of those who interacts and collaborates in the realization of the works.  Inside Out is an example: launched in 2011 at the TED conference where JR has received the prestigious award, it is summed up by the artist's own words: "The concept of the project is to give everyone the opportunity to share their portrait and a statement of what they stand for, with the world."

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

These portraits scattered around the world represent a way of being there that translates into political demand. In Tunisia, for example, JR's photographs have replaced portraits of political leaders, in a period already stretched by the Arab springs.

Several elements accompany the vision of JR's works. Political messages form the backbone of the performances, yet on the other hand, at the same time, we gather useful insights to measure ourselves with the artistic context in the contemporary. As theorized by Walter Benjamin, in the well-known essay on art in the age of reproducibility (2), photography becomes a means of contact between the public and the artist. It removes the aura that hovers around many of the works of art exhibited in museums. Art becomes part of everyday life, filling users' lives, and is returned to the subjects of the photographs. When pictures are publicly exposed, either in the streets or viaducts, pr stadiums, they become shared heritage. Just like the images that continually invade the social media pages, JR's photographs follow the destiny that users intend to give them. If, in fact, the author, in this game of references and interaction, seems to disappear behind the scenes of art, on the other hand, he is exalted and made famous. The whole, the combination of photography, performance, and restitution, is more than the sum of his set off. The aura passes from the work to its creator. Just think of how Banksy, an artist who never showed himself to the public, is now a worldwide phenomenon.

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

JR “Omelia Contadina” at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2020–21
Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

As Jacques Ranciére had pointed out in his "Malaise dans l'esthétique" (3), contemporary art can and must become a means of dissent, a privileged way to question the world, for how it presents itself. As with the "Omelia contadina" and most JR's projects, the photographs are in the balance; they become a borderland. They are halfway between artist and public, denounce social, civil, and political issues. They stand in the middle of the performance, the art installation, the cinema. They are also in the balance in time, making transitions evident, expressing "what the world is and what it could become" (4).

(1) The short film depicts the procession and burial of photographs of farmers from the Alfina plateau, in the province of Viterbo. Omelia contadina was then followed up by another performance, Homily to country, River Darling (Baaka), in order to denounce the hydrogeological decline of the Darling River, in Australia, the third-longest in the country, due to its intensive exploitation. For the opening at Galleria Continua, another procession, with the same figures used for the performance of Lazio, was staged in the central streets of San Gimignano, on September 26, 2020.

(2) Benjamin Walter (2011), L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, Einaudi, Torino. "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit2, in: Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, 1936

(3) Ranciére Jacques (2004), Il disagio dell’estetica, Ets, Pisa. "Malaise dans l'esthétique", Editions Galilée, 2004

(4) Id, Ibidem, p. 44.

The text is based on the exhibition "Omelia Contadina e il mondo futuro: JR a Galleria Continua".  (San Gimignano, 26/9/2020 - 11/7/2021)