French artist JR just unveiled two new works in Rio ahead of the 2016 Olympics that depict enormous athletes interacting with the city. The first depicts Cologne-based, Sudanese high jumper Mohamed Younes Idriss hurdling over a 25-story apartment complex in city’s center. “He missed out on qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics but he is there somehow,” says JR. The second piece is an unidentified diver suspended above the water in Rio’s Barra neighborhood.
The installations utilize a new technique for JR that sees his signature use of photography printed on giant sheets of fabric attached to scaffolds. From comments on Instagram it sounds like we may get to see a few more of these over the next few days. (via StreetArtNews, Phaidon)