French street artist JR has transformed Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, with an inflatable cave-like installation that pays homage to the work of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
Named La Caverne du Pont Neuf, the giant installation will officially open to the public on 6 June and be visible from numerous viewpoints, including the top floor of the Eiffel Tower.
In the first images of the 120-metre-long La Caverne du Pont Neuf installation, its inflatable fabric structure can be seen with a rocky form and pattern in shades of white, black and grey.
It was designed by JR as a nod to The Pont Neuf Wrapped – an iconic installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in which the same 17th-century bridge was cloaked in fabric 41 years ago.
“My vision for this project is rooted in both the past and present of this iconic bridge,” JR explains.
“I admire the legacy of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and I share their idea that the mission of art is to make us think, to question what is familiar to us. The debate that a public art project can provoke is of equal value to its realization,” he continued.
“Art is a transformation, and a way of renewing the way we look at the world around us. Through the dream of La Caverne du Pont Neuf, this is what I hope to make possible in Paris.”
Completed in 1607, Pont Neuf was the first bridge in Paris built without wood – instead constructed from Lutetian limestone, or Paris stone.
JR’s design is intended to emulate quarries in the Paris Basin, from which Paris stone was extracted to create the bridge and other buildings in the city.
La Caverne du Pont Neuf encompasses 2,400 square metres and peaks at 18 metres in height. Its fabric was secured by straps and contains a tunnel inside through which visitors can walk.
According to JR, the installation was designed to be inflatable to minimise material usage and installation weight, preventing intervention or damage to the historic bridge.
While the exterior is now complete, the inner tunnel will now be fitted out to feel like “a step into the unknown”, JR said.
As part of the interior installation, the artist has worked with musician Thomas Bangalter – one-half of the music duo Daft Punk – to create a soundtrack.
“It will be a symbolic crossing, a step into the unknown, a journey within oneself,” JR said. “I designed the crossing of La Caverne as an experience where fullness and emptiness exist in balance.”
La Caverne du Pont Neuf has been under development for over a year with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and French endowment fund L’Amicale des Ponts de Paris.
Prior to the installation, the team created a fifteen-metre-high prototype in an airport hangar to test the components.
“A life-size test was always essential to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work, and it’s exciting to see JR applying the same rigorous approach to perfect the installation and production of the artwork,” said the artist duo’s nephew, Vladimir Yavachev, who is working as project director.
“The Orly airport test was striking, and I’m confident this project will leave a lasting mark on Paris and the art world.”
According to Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, the installation is hoped to “draw the eyes of the world to the heart of Paris”.
“As JR and his teams prepare to set up, Parisians are eager to admire this work of art as it takes shape under their eyes,” said Grégoire. “It will be a great moment for the city, one that will mark its architectural history and once again draw the eyes of the world to the heart of Paris.”
Another Parisian landmark to have been transformed by JR is the Louvre, which he encircled with a giant 3D optical illusion that imagined the iconic pyramid continuing underground.
Other iconic installations by Christo and Jeanne-Claude include Wrapped Coast, a fabric installation cloaking 1.5 miles of Australian coastline in 1969, and Valley Curtain, an orange partition hung between two mountains in 1972, which featured in our roundup of eight key projects by Christo and Jeanne Claude.
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