Alliance Française San Francisco Joins French Artist JR’s Inside Out Project 

Alliance Française San Francisco has installed a giant photo exhibition of its francophone and francophile members as part of French artist JR’s Inside Out project.

French artist JR inspired the Alliance Française San Francisco (AFSF) to promote its French-speaking community to the world by photographing members and installing a collage of the typical large-scale JR-style photos on a public street in San Francisco. In addition, a few images were chosen to engage viewers along the Quai d’Orsay in Paris as part of France’s annual Heritage Days this past September 21 and 22, along with a special showing earlier in the month at the Foundation des Alliances Françaises in Paris.

The AFSF photo project is part of Inside Out, a global art project created by JR in 2011 when he won a TED Prize. Inside Out’s goal is to help communities around the world stand up for what they believe in and bring about global change at a local level through the display of large-scale black and white portraits in public spaces. The goal is to spark collaborations and conversations around the world. 

According to the Inside Out website, over the past decade more than 500,000 people in 152 countries and territories have participated in the project creating over 2,600 photo installations. The topics covered have revolved around a range of themes including diversity, community, feminism, racism, climate change, education, children’s rights and more. All the posters are displayed in public spaces and are then documented and shared online.

AFSF’s topic focus, as its Inside Out website says, is to create an opportunity to promote the French-speaking and Francophile community in the cosmopolitan city of San Francisco, which is considered a symbol of openness and diversity. By integrating the Inside Out project with AFSF’s future initiatives related to the recently opened Francophone History Museum, AFSF hopes to create meaningful continuity that will further enrich the understanding and appreciation of the Francophone heritage in San Francisco.

“What a fun way to bring together our community who share a common passion for French language and Francophone cultures,” said Noëmie Hérail, Executive Director of AFSF. “From opening a historical museum for generations to come, to pasting giant ephemeral portraits in the street, our team is showing its commitment and dedication to the local community in San Francisco.”

The fun started when the Inside Out studio contacted AFSF to participate in the Les Visages de la Francophonie (the Faces of the Francophonie) program that currently has around 20 Alliance Française organizations from around the world participating. Its goal is to highlight the diversity of the French-speaking world and celebrate the global, multicultural community.

Photos of 30 members were taken at AFSF in June 2024 and the images were sent to Inside Out in New York where it printed the poster-sized images. These were then sent to AFSF, and on August 28 a group of volunteers organized and installed the photo collage display on Fern Street behind AFSF showing the smiling, laughing, creative faces that not only reflect the fun of being an AFSF member but the diversity of the people learning and supporting the French language. Young and old members are smiling reflecting Spanish, Black, Asian and White faces. Personalities shine as some members look upward while others create funny faces. Maybe memorizing French verb conjugations can be fun after all.  

Currently, Les Visages de la Francophonie features several US Alliance Française organizations including New Orleans, Portland and Miami along with San Francisco. It includes about 20 Alliance Française organizations from all over the world including Montreal, Canada; Bogota and Cartagena, Columbia; The Hague; Bethlehem; Cusco, Peru; Luanda, Angola; La Havana, Cuba and many other places. Images from the participating organizations have also been displayed at the Summit of Francophonie held in Villers-Cotterêts, France, on October 4 and 5. 

Inside Out’s Les Visages de la Francophonie project is an opportunity for the Alliance Françaises around the world to celebrate and reflect the humanist message that has inspired them for 140 years, according to Inside Out. The portraits of French speakers displayed at the Summit of Francophonie will “take full measure of what belonging to a vast and diverse French-speaking space represents.”