NYCB brings 2014 Art Series collaborator JR on stage in the spring for a piece d'occasion conceived by the prize-winning artist, featuring original music by Woodkid and special guest Lil Buck in his Lincoln Center debut.
The ballet
Les Bosquets is inspired by the French artist JR’s first project, “Portrait of a Generation.” In 2004 JR organized an exhibition on the walls of the Cité des Bosquets, a neighborhood of projects in the Parisian suburb of Clichy-Montfermeil. JR settled in the heart of this neighborhood where he took portraits of the local youth and then displayed them on their own buildings, as well as throughout the streets of Paris. It is in this same neighborhood where the 2005 French riots broke out, with JR’s portraits providing an unexpected visual backdrop as the events were documented by media outlets from around the world. Ten years after “Portrait of a Generation”, and set to an original score by the acclaimed musical artist Woodkid, Les Bosquets is JR’s interpretation of the riots, where an artist and a journalist first confront and then discover each other, against a backdrop of the police, the rioters, and the chaos that ensued.