After collaborating with Italian director Alice Rohrwacher on the short film “Omelia contadina” and presenting it at the 77th Venice Film Festival with a real procession, JR and his project have now arrived in Australia on the occasion of the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) Triennial. 

Read also: JR and Alice Rohrwacher in Venice with “Omelia Contadina”

While in Italy the project was born to shed light on the dramatic situation of the Alfina Plateau, where the landscape has been almost totally destroyed to make room for hazelnut monoculture, in Australia, the French artsist has adapted the project to another critical situation, that linked to the decline of the Darling River (in local dialect Baaka or Barka), in the state of New South Wales.

The almost total disappearance of the river is the result of years of intensive extraction of water used for irrigation, climate change and drought and, as always, JR’s work aims to raise awareness of both the environmental and human implications. 

“I started this project in Italy, very far from Australia, yet farmers have similar issues : protect their environment and live decently from their work.”

“Homily to Country” is developed in three equally important elements. The first is an actual procession that took place yesterday: local farmers carried giant pictures of themselves on their shoulders through the dry riverbed. 

The second is a chapel built inside the National Gallery’s Equiset Garden in Victoria with a series of stained glass windows depicting life-sized natural elements of the disappearing Darling River and the farmers themselves. 

Finally, to complete the project, there is a film that shows the making of the work and lets us discover the places that inspired JR. 

The installation and the film of “Homily to Country” are viewable until 18 April as works of the NGV Triennial and will then remain in the museum’s permanent collection. 

We are used to it by now, it always happens like this: Banksy acts in the shadows, he makes a new artwork, rumors start to circulate and we have to wait for his claim before we can be sure that it is really him. In this case, the last step hasn’t happened yet, but this work is so provocative that we can’t wait to talk about it.

For the occasion, we have to take a trip to the UK and go outside Reading prison, a famous place that between 1895 and 1897 housed one of England’s greatest writers: Oscar Wilde.
It is on the walls of this building that a few days ago appeared what we believe to be Banksy’s latest work, an image starring a prisoner with a typewriter – very similar to the late 19th-century writer – who escapes from the prison walls thanks to a row of sheets tied together.

This artistic intervention pays homage to the writer while conveying a very strong message of protest. For more than five years, Reading Prison has been in disuse, and activists have fought to see it transformed into an arts center, but the government’s intentions have always been adamant and directed towards more commercial choices.

We could be wrong, but with this in mind, an action by Banksy could be a game-changer. We’d like to believe that he is the author, that his move could be a nod of encouragement to shake up decisions at the top, a way to relaunch the art project and support the struggle.

Read also: The new Banksy appeared in Bristol