Reconstructing Sequences

Inside Out Project

〈Inside Out Project—Gwangju〉, 2024.

Installation, participatory project, dimensions variable.
Photo booth: 3000×6000×2600cm
Audio recording space: 3000×4000×2600cm
Commissioned by National Asian Culture Center. Courtesy of the artist.

Inside Out Project is a worldwide participatory art project conceived by the French artist JR. The project involves displaying large-scale, black-and-white portraits of participating individuals in public spaces to visually deliver their stories and spread social messages. Over the past 10 years, more than 500,000 people in 152 countries and regions have participated in the project, generating over 2,500 campaigns.

Inside Out Project—Gwangju, running from October 15 to 19, 2024, invites 1,000 Gwangju residents to voice their values and ideals. By revealing the truth instead of forgetting, ignoring, or hiding it, the participants aim to subvert a world where it is difficult to address problems despite the strange things that happen.

Participants enter a camera-shaped photo booth to take portraits of themselves. Afterward, they move to an audio recording room and share personal stories related to the former Jeollanam-do Provincial Office, the ACC, and other aspects of the history of Gwangju. Their faces and opinions fill the surface of the four-meter-tall temporary fence erected for the restoration of the former Jeollanam-do Provincial Office, transforming the “construction site” into a “place of artistic action that remembers history.”