Woman, Life, Freedom
2022
©JR
Woman, Life, Freedom
The first Woman, Life, Freedom installation gathered people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to show solidarity with Iranian women and protestors. In response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, Iran has been experiencing the country’s largest protest movement in over a decade. For weeks on end, tens of thousands of protestors, largely made up of women and teenagers, have taken to the streets to demand justice and a change in leadership.
Wearing black clothing and with their arms raised in the air, 250 participants embodied the hair of sixteen-year-old activist Nika Shahkarami. After being videotaped burning a headscarf during protests in the capital city of Tehran on September 20th, 2022, Nika went missing. A week later, her family was informed that she was dead. Her portrait, placed by the sea, showed that she and the people of Iran have not been forgotten. Their fight for women’s rights, democracy, and freedom is supported by communities thousands of miles away.
©JR
A month later, JR and his team installed Nika’s portrait at the Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City. With over 300 people participating, Nika’s hair grew longer. While waving their arms in the air to mimic the wind blowing through hair, participants chanted Mahsa Amini’s name and “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom).
In November 2022, he placed portraits of Iranian people who have led the resistance into a river. The portraits in focus are of people who have disappeared and do not fear being recognized anymore; the blurry portraits are of people who are alive and continue to fight. The images move with the current, representing the march of history. The people push forward together, sacrificing their lives or freedoms so that tomorrow may be better than today.
Music by Homayoun Shajarian from The Lord of the Secrets plays as the camera pulls out, capturing all the resistors’ faces.
