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Important: La Caverne du Pont Neuf was damaged on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 2. The organizers have decided to postpone the opening of the work to a date after June 6. “La Caverne du Pont-Neuf,” a temporary artwork designed by JR, will be presented from June 6 to 28, 2026. The installation will pay tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work The Pont Neuf Wrapped, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary this year. It will offer Parisians and visitors a limited-time opportunity to experience an ephemeral reimagining of Paris’s oldest bridge. The project will be made possible through a partnership with the endowment fund L’Amicale des Ponts de Paris. JR’s vision is inspired by the quarries from which the bridge’s stones came and highlights the origins of Paris’s historic architecture. “La Caverne du Pont-Neuf” will juxtapose the raw and wild with the refined elegance of Paris, creating a dialogue between past and present. Go behind the scenes of this installation in our interview with JR. A tribute to Pont Neuf Wrapped Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Pont Neuf Wrapped was first proposed by the artists in 1975. It took a decade of technical planning and negotiations with the authorities before it finally came to life from September 22 to October 5, 1985. During that period, the iconic bridge was wrapped in 41,800m² of fabric, secured by 13 km of rope and 12 tonnes of steel cables, with the help of 12 engineers and 300 specialized workers. “I wanted to transform it, to turn an architectural object into an object of inspiration for artists, an artwork in its own right,” Christo explained during the creation of Pont Neuf Wrapped. “For the first time, it would become a sculpture, but an ephemeral one.” Over those two weeks, three million visitors discovered Pont Neuf Wrapped. 40 years later, JR is transforming Pont Neuf once again Pont Neuf was completed in 1607. It was the first bridge in Paris not to be built using wood, but entirely from Lutetian limestone, also known as Paris stone. The limestone used to build this bridge, as well as many of Paris’s buildings and monuments, came from the quarries of the Paris Basin. It was also the city’s first bridge to have paved sidewalks, making pedestrian circulation and Parisian urban life easier. Beyond its enduring public use, the bridge continues to be celebrated for its rich history and picturesque views over the Seine. My vision for this project is inspired by both the past and present of this iconic bridge. JR, JR and his team, in coordination with the Fondation Christo et Jeanne-Claude and L’Amicale des Ponts de Paris, planned and worked with the support of the Ville de Paris to ensure the success of “La Caverne du Pont Neuf.” Extensive technical studies were carried out to obtain the necessary permits. Throughout its presentation, “La Caverne du Pont-Neuf” will be accessible to the public free of charge, allowing people to cross it or pass beneath it, either by bateau-mouche or along the banks of the Seine. The artwork will be funded through private patronage, with no use of public funds. Further details will be announced in 2026. Operating and diversion plans for the “La Caverne du Pont-Neuf” construction site JR’s “La Caverne du Pont-Neuf”: how the incredible project took shape! (video) Traffic restrictions for the installation of “La Caverne du Pont-Neuf” For JR, “La Caverne du Pont-Neuf” will be the culmination of an artistic cycle begun in 2020, during which he has continually questioned citizens’ growing disconnection and isolation, especially intensified by the pandemic and successive lockdowns. In this spirit, JR created several trompe-l’oeil works, opening breaches in the façades of iconic buildings, such as La Ferita in Florence (2021), Punto de Fuga in Rome (2021), and La Nascita in Milan (2024).
Source: paris.fr — photo: Projet Pont-Neuf, Atelier JR, Courtesy Atelier JR, 2024