GIANTS : Rising Up

Three years after it was originally scheduled, JR‘s enormous art installation has finally taken its place overlooking Hong Kong's Victoria Bay. The French artist didn't let delays brought on by the pandemic stop him from creating Rising Up, which was inaugurated to usher in Hong Kong Arts Month.

The piece shows an athlete jumping across a mass of bamboo scaffolding and is a continuation of the Giants series that JR began during the 2016 Rio Olympics. For JR, who says he's always been intrigued by Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolding, it only made sense to revisit the project in this location.

“As an athletic gesture, ‘rising up' embodies taking the risk to separate oneself from solid earth, to resist the pull of gravity and feel the brief freedom of flight,” he explains.

Measuring nearly 40 feet tall and 40 feet wide, the installation is impossible to miss when visiting Hong Kong's Ocean Terminal Deck. The impressive installation is garnering a lot of attention and is particularly popular on Instagram, with visitors posting pictures daily.