Known across France as the “French Banksy”, artist JR is preparing to transform one of Paris’s most iconic bridges – Pont Neuf – into a monumental, walk-through “cave” this June, inviting Parisians to pause and experience the landmark anew.
The 17th-century structure, typically a bustling thoroughfare, will be temporarily reimagined with a rocky illusion covering its stone arches.
Visitors will be invited to traverse the River Seine through an immersive tunnel, complete with integrated sound and digitally augmented reality, offering a unique perspective on the historic landmark.
JR, celebrated for his large-scale photographic and street art projects, describes the ambitious undertaking as potentially the “largest immersive installation ever made”. He promises an experience that will be accessible around the clock, providing a “totally different approach” to the bridge.
“We’re about to leave something pretty incredible in the middle of Paris,” JR told The Associated Press at his studio in eastern Paris, wearing his trademark hat and shades.
His project, the Pont Neuf Cavern is to run June 6-28, spanning 120 meters (yards) in length and over 17 meters in height.
A tribute — and a gamble
The installation is a nod to a Paris legend: the late artistic duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude who in 1985 wrapped Pont Neuf — and its streetlamps — in a pale golden fabric. The project, which took years of negotiations with the authorities, helped define the genre of monumental public art in modern cities across the world.
To JR, the homage is both aesthetic and personal.
“I had the chance to meet Christo along the years,” he said. “We had big respect for each other’s work.”
While walking recently on the street with an AP crew, an older woman stopped JR — now, a household name in his country — to share her memories of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapping. She told him she was excited to see the bridge transformed again.
Still, JR — a pseudonym stemming from first name, Jean-René — acknowledges the weight of following in the iconic pair’s footsteps.
“It’s pretty hard to go after them,” he said, “but I’m doing it in a very different style, in my own way.”
His idea is about “bringing back mineral and nature” to the heart of Paris.
From the outside, his installation will make Pont Neuf look “as if it has been overtaken by a prehistoric outcrop,” a structure visible along the banks of the Seine — a rocky mass that is “literally going to break the landscape,” he said.
Two experiences: the city, then the cave
JR said there will be two main ways for people to experience his installation. From the outside, those heading to Pont Neuf will see the giant installation hundreds of meters away.
And from the inside, once visitors enter the “cave” on Pont Neuf, they will be able to walk through a long tunnel-like structure, having a feeling of “total immersion,” he said.
The cave will allow no daylight in and once inside, visitors “will lose track of time,” JR said.
A key collaborator on the project is Thomas Bangalter, a former member of French rock band Daft Punk who is creating the sound to accompany the installation — “something you’ll only hear from the inside,” JR said.
Snap’s AR studio in Paris is developing the augmented reality technology. Visitors will be able to use their smartphones to “experience and see things that you can’t see with your eyes,” JR said.
He is intentionally mysterious about what that is — keeping it a surprise until closer to the opening.
JR’s team conducted extensive engineering studies, including tests in a hangar at Paris’ Orly airport, to understand how the structure behaves, especially in an emergency when the electricity that fuels the cave’s air supply cuts off. Tests show the structure stays the same. There is also the security question — the bridge is a busy zone, especially during Paris’ tourist-packed early summer.
JR said visitor numbers will be limited at any given time, and that his team is consulting with authorities on that. During the three weeks of the exhibition, the installation will be continuously monitored.
A cave, and a metaphor
JR is best known for his large-scale art — enormous portraits pasted on buildings, border walls and rooftops. Because of his origins in graffiti and street art he has inevitably drawn comparison with Banksy, the elusive U.K.-based artist famous for his huge murals and activism.
JR’s installation will not have any massive faces, but the theme is still human, he says: gathering, connection, and what people project onto a shared space.
He says his installation is also an allusion to Plato’s allegory of the cave in which chained men interpret shadows on the cave wall as reality, ignorant of the real world outside — and compares that to the fake reality created by the visual world of our social media platforms.
“What are our caves today is our phone,” JR said, “because we … believe that … our algorithm on social media … is the reality.”
During the installation, which will coincide with June’s Paris Fashion Week and World Music Day, the bridge will close to traffic.
