Who are you, Naples?: the Duomo and six hundred photographs

Today we return to talk to you about the Cathedral of Naples to tell you about a very special artistic initiative that involved more than six hundred people from our city.

We are talking about Who are you, Naples?, a photographic collage created by the French artist JR with the patronage of the Municipality of Naples and Banca Intesa San Paolo. The latter, in the Neapolitan headquarters of its Gallerie d'Italia (*), has created an exhibition dedicated to the initiative, as can be read in this text:

The Gallerie d'Italia - Naples, from May 22 to October 5, 2025, present the exhibition by the French artist JR Chi sei, Napoli?, dedicated to the eighth chapter of the Chronichles series, which after Clichy-Montfermeil (2017), San Francisco (2018), New York (2018), Miami (2022), Kyoto (2024), three American cities (Dallas, Saint Louis and Washington DC) for a mural on the theme of weapons in America (2018), and fifteen cities in Cuba (2019) arrives in the Neapolitan city with the first installation of this type in Italy, created with the patronage of the Municipality of Naples.

In September 2024, the French artist JR began a deep exploration of the complex cultural identity of the city in Naples. In one week, from September 23 to 29, the citizens of seven neighborhoods were the protagonists, through photographic sets set up in Piazza Sanità, Piazza Dante, Fuorigrotta, Mergellina, San Giovanni a Teduccio, Piazza Cavour and Borgo Sant'Antonio Abate.

During this intense period, the portraits and stories of 606 Neapolitans from different social and cultural backgrounds were collected, thus capturing the essence of Naples.

JR’s site-specific work was installed in May 2025 on the façade of the Cathedral of Naples, transformed into a mosaic of local faces, thus embodying the community spirit, resilience, energy and polymorphic soul of the city.

The result of JR’s work is told in its composition in an exhibition at the Gallerie d’Italia of Intesa Sanpaolo in via Toledo, where the ‘behind the scenes’ is also relived. The exhibition also presents three murals from the Chronicles series, created in France (Chroniques de Clichy-Montfermeil), Cuba (Las Crónicas de Cuba) and the USA (The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America), to show how JR’s art can stimulate conversations while creating a powerful visual impact.

Let's start with our images starting from the façade of the Cathedral:

Let's now move on to the photos of the Gallerie d'Italia, starting with these singular distorted images found in the access corridor to the exhibition:

And this is the position where you can lie down to admire the photos of the Duomo (those in a wheelchair can still look at the images by climbing onto the platform):

Finally, let's give an idea of ​​JR's previous work, in particular the Cronica created in Cuba in 2019 which is expressed in a large circular mural framed in a circular structure:

To conclude, some technical information:

• if you want to visit the Cathedral, including the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro, and the Gallerie d'Italia on the same day, remember that the Duomo can be reached by Metro Line 1 (DUOMO station) while the Gallerie d'Italia can always be reached by Metro Line 1, getting off at the TOLEDO station;

• on the ground floor of the Galleries there is the Luminist restaurant, accessible and with bathrooms equipped for us.

  
  

SEE YOU NEXT TIME !!!

(*) symbol indicating the presence of toilets equipped for disabled people