One year of turning the world inside out
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0:00 - 0:04Twelve years ago, I was in the street writing my name
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0:04 - 0:06to say, "I exist."
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0:06 - 0:11Then I went to taking photos of people to paste them on the street
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0:11 - 0:14to say, "They exist."
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0:14 - 0:18From the suburbs of Paris to the wall of Israel and Palestine,
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0:18 - 0:20the rooftops of Kenya
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0:20 - 0:22to the favelas of Rio,
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0:22 - 0:26paper and glue -- as easy as that.
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0:26 - 0:28I asked a question last year:
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0:28 - 0:31Can art change the world?
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0:31 - 0:33Well let me tell you,
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0:33 - 0:36in terms of changing the world there has been a lot of competition this year,
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0:36 - 0:40because the Arab Spring is still spreading,
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0:40 - 0:43the Eurozone has collapsed ... what else?
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0:43 - 0:46The Occupy movement found a voice,
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0:46 - 0:48and I still have to speak English constantly.
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0:48 - 0:51So there has been a lot of change.
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0:51 - 0:53So when I had my TED wish last year,
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0:53 - 0:56I said, look, I'm going to switch my concept.
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0:56 - 0:59You are going to take the photos.
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0:59 - 1:02You're going to send them to me.
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1:02 - 1:05I'm going to print them and send them back to you.
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1:05 - 1:07Then you're going to paste them where it makes sense
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1:07 - 1:09for you to place your own statement.
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1:09 - 1:12This is Inside Out.
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1:12 - 1:16One hundred thousand posters have been printed this year.
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1:16 - 1:20Those are the kind of posters, let me show you.
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1:20 - 1:22And we keep sending more every day.
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1:22 - 1:24This is the size.
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1:24 - 1:28Just a regular piece of paper with a little bit of ink on it.
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1:28 - 1:31This one was from Haiti.
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1:31 - 1:34When I launched my wish last year,
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1:34 - 1:38hundreds of people stood up and said they wanted to help us.
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1:38 - 1:40But I say it has to be
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1:40 - 1:44under the conditions I've always worked:
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1:44 - 1:48no credit, no logos, no sponsoring.
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1:48 - 1:52A week later, a handful of people were there ready to rock
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1:52 - 1:55and empower the people on the ground
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1:55 - 1:56who wanted to change the world.
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1:56 - 2:01These are the people I want to talk about to you today.
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2:01 - 2:07Two weeks after my speech, in Tunisia,
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2:07 - 2:11hundreds of portraits were made.
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2:11 - 2:15And they pasted [over] every single portrait of the dictator
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2:15 - 2:16[with] their own photos.
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2:16 - 2:19Boom! This is what happened.
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2:19 - 2:21Slim and his friends went through the country
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2:21 - 2:23and pasted hundreds of photos everywhere
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2:23 - 2:26to show the diversity in the country.
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2:26 - 2:30They really make Inside Out their own project.
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2:30 - 2:34Actually, that photo was pasted in a police station,
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2:34 - 2:36and what you see on the ground
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2:36 - 2:42are ID cards of all the photos of people being tracked by the police.
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2:42 - 2:46Russia. Chad wanted to fight against homophobia in Russia.
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2:46 - 2:51He went with his friends in front of every Russian embassy in Europe
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2:51 - 2:53and stood there with the photos
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2:53 - 2:55to say, "We have rights."
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2:55 - 2:59They used Inside Out as a platform for protest.
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2:59 - 3:01Karachi, Pakistan.
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3:01 - 3:03Sharmeen is actually here.
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3:03 - 3:06She organized a TEDx action out there
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3:06 - 3:09and made all the unseen faces of the city
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3:09 - 3:12on the walls in her town.
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3:12 - 3:14And I want to thank her today.
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3:14 - 3:18North Dakota. Standing Rock Nation,
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3:18 - 3:24in this Turtle Island, [unclear name] from the Dakota Lakota tribe
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3:24 - 3:27wanted to show that the Native Americans are still here.
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3:27 - 3:30The seventh generation are still fighting for their rights.
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3:30 - 3:33He pasted up portraits all over his reservation.
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3:33 - 3:35And he's here also today.
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3:35 - 3:39Each time I get a wall in New York,
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3:39 - 3:44I use his photos to continue spreading the project.
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3:44 - 3:47Juarez: You've heard of the border --
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3:47 - 3:50one of the most dangerous borders in the world.
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3:50 - 3:55Monica has taken thousands of portraits with a group of photographers
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3:55 - 3:57and covered the entire border.
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3:57 - 3:59Do you know what it takes to do this?
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3:59 - 4:03People, energy, make the glue, organize the team.
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4:03 - 4:06It was amazing.
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4:06 - 4:08While in Iran at the same time
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4:08 - 4:11Abololo -- of course a nickname --
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4:11 - 4:14has pasted one single face of a woman
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4:14 - 4:17to show his resistance against the government.
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4:17 - 4:22I don't have to explain to you what kind of risk he took for that action.
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4:22 - 4:25There are tons of school projects.
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4:25 - 4:28Twenty percent of the posters we are receiving comes from schools.
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4:28 - 4:30Education is so essential.
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4:30 - 4:33Kids just make photos in a class, the teacher receives them,
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4:33 - 4:35they paste them on the school.
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4:35 - 4:37Here they even got the help of the firemen.
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4:37 - 4:41There should be even more schools doing this kind of project.
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4:41 - 4:47Of course we wanted to go back to Israel and Palestine.
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4:47 - 4:50So we went there with a truck. This is a photobooth truck.
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4:50 - 4:52You go on the back of that truck, it takes your photo,
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4:52 - 4:5630 seconds later take it from the side, you're ready to rock.
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4:56 - 4:59Thousands of people use them
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4:59 - 5:03and each of them signs up for a two-state peace solution
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5:03 - 5:05and then walk in the street.
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5:05 - 5:09This is march, the 450,000 march -- beginning of September.
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5:09 - 5:12They were all holding their photo as a statement.
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5:12 - 5:16On the other side, people were wrapping up streets, buildings.
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5:16 - 5:17It's everywhere.
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5:17 - 5:20Come on, don't tell me that people aren't ready for peace out there.
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5:20 - 5:25These projects took thousands of actions in one year,
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5:25 - 5:28making hundreds of thousands of people participating,
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5:28 - 5:32creating millions of views.
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5:32 - 5:39This is the biggest global art participatory project that's going on.
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5:39 - 5:43So back to the question, "Can art change the world?"
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5:43 - 5:46Maybe not in one year. That's the beginning.
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5:46 - 5:49But maybe we should change the question.
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5:49 - 5:52Can art change people's lives?
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5:52 - 5:56From what I've seen this year, yes.
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5:56 - 5:58And you know what? It's just the beginning.
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5:58 - 6:01Let's turn the world inside out together.
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6:01 - 6:02Thank you.
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6:02 - 6:08(Applause)
- Title:
- One year of turning the world inside out
- Speaker:
- JR
- Description:
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Street artist JR made a wish in 2011: Join me in a worldwide photo project to show the world its true face. Now, a year after his TED Prize wish, he shows how giant posters of human faces, pasted in public, are connecting communities, making change, and turning the world inside out. You can join in at insideoutproject.net
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 06:31
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for One year of turning the world inside out | ||
Nart Abaza commented on English subtitles for One year of turning the world inside out | ||
Jenny Zurawell approved English subtitles for One year of turning the world inside out | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for One year of turning the world inside out | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for One year of turning the world inside out | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for One year of turning the world inside out | ||
Timothy Covell added a translation |