<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[French street artist launches new project in West&nbsp;Bank]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.maannews.net/images/PhotoViewer/144289.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Maan News Agency | Sept 9, 2011</p>
<p>BETHLEHEM (Ma&#8217;an) &#8212; The French street artist responsible for adorning the separation wall with giant portraits of grinning rabbis, imams, Israelis and Palestinians has returned to the West Bank with a new project.</p>
<p>The artist, known only by his initials JR, has launched his latest project &#8216;Inside Out&#8217; globally, and it arrived in Palestine on Monday.</p>
<p>He has installed booths in Bethlehem and Ramallah where people can have their photo taken and printed in black and white as huge posters.</p>
<p>At the Bethlehem bus station on Monday, crowds of locals entered the booth one-by-one to pose for a self-portrait, and posters can already be seen plastered along the city&#8217;s main street.</p>
<p>The idea of the community art project is that participants will be creative with their images, in any way they choose.</p>
<p>According to its website, the project &#8220;transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world.&#8221;</p>
<p>Palestinian coordinator Wisam Salsaa sees the project as an opportunity for people to &#8220;raise their voices and tell their stories&#8221; through images and expressions.</p>
<p>&#8220;People talk about Palestinians in numbers or statistics but they rarely see a Palestinian face,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>But JR and his team are not imposing any concept on participants.</p>
<p>&#8220;Simply what they are doing, they are telling people, well, you have these booths, we can get your portraits, use them however you like. It&#8217;s yours,&#8221; Salsaa explained.</p>
<p>&#8220;We like participants to believe in the project and become a part of it.&#8221;</p>
<p>So far, participants have chosen to write &#8220;Free Palestine&#8221; on their faces, &#8220;I&#8217;m a refugee&#8221; and &#8220;Right to return.&#8221;</p>
<p>One suggestion from al-Azza refugee camp in Bethlehem was to draw the flags of countries that have recognized the state of Palestine on faces and create a mural.</p>
<p>The &#8216;Inside Out&#8217; project was JR&#8217;s wish after winning the annual TED prize. TED, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to cultivating ideas and innovation, grants winners $100,000 and a wish.</p>
<p>Accepting the prize at a TED conference, JR explained: &#8220;What we see changes who we are. When we act together, the whole thing is much more than the sum of the parts. So I hope that, together, we&#8217;ll create something that the world will remember. And this starts right now and depends on you.&#8221;</p>
<p>The photo booths are located in Bethlehem&#8217;s bus station and in the Baladna center near Al-Bireh bus station in Ramallah.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=418101">Source</a></p>
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