‘It should make you uncomfortable’: French artist JR on turning Paris’ oldest bridge into a cave | Art and design

Wand behind the Eiffel Tower on one side and Notre Dame on the other, Pont Neuf is not only the most beautiful bridge in Paris but also, contrary to what its name suggests, the oldest bridge in the city.

However, as of today, the Pont Neuf is no longer a bridge but an underground cave.

Large cloths, woven to look like the stone on which Paris was built, have been raised above the bridge, creating a so-called art gallery. Caves. It is so A bonkers idea, it’s straightforward tax to Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude covered the Pont Neuf more than 40 years ago.

The main installation is the function of French artist and photographer known as JR, often called French Banksywhose previous installations include making the Louvre pyramid disappear, placing large images of Israelis and Palestinians facing each other on the dividing wall and Kikito, a large image of a small child looking at the US-Mexico border fence.

La Caverne finally opened on Monday, 10 days late after the curtain was torn by a storm that required emergency repairs. It is described as a profound event, “crossing over”, “moving into the unknown” to awaken the old fear of darkness and being locked up in the dark unable to escape.

The printed fabric creates a stone path with columns and cracks designed to resemble the Lutetian limestone that was cut from the underground basins of the Paris area and where the city is built. Pont Neuf, Notre Dame and the Louvre Museum were built from the same stone.

Subterranean circulation is enhanced by sound – and smell. Thomas Bangalterhalf of Daft Punkit has made the sound more stable; the air contains moist soil and stones, which are created by the artist who creates the perfume inside. work day.

JR says he hopes that the technical installation, 120m long and 18m high, will make visitors forget that they are crossing a bridge in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world.

Everything would have been possible if it had not been for the screams of groups of tourists (mainly Americans) whose joy would not have been limited to fake stones or “spectacular views” or the sudden shock of real things at the sight of a shop window facing the exit selling souvenirs of La Caverne.

In an interview with the Guardian before the opening, JR, 43, explained his ideas behind the installation which emerged from a meeting with Christo’s Bulgarian-born nephew Vladimir Yavachev, who runs Christo and the Jeanne-Claude Foundation.

“We were talking about the Pont Neuf memorial and Vladimir said to do something. Not to wrap but my thing,” he said. “Then I started dreaming and painting and while painting, the idea of ​​the cave came out.”

He said that the idea of ​​a cave goes back to the earliest beginnings of art when the first people built on stone walls.

“You are walking on a bridge. You know exactly where you are, you are in the middle of Paris. But as soon as you pass through the door you are somewhere else, not just for a moment but for the whole time because you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“When we enter the cave, we see no way out. We’ll have to walk past our source, where we come from, to see the light. It’s supposed to make you feel at ease somehow.”

Our interviews are based place on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the first train of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery. A young man from the banlieue of Paris, JR used to tag trains and public transport with his originals before he found a camera left on a train at Charles de Gaulle airport.

Today, he is walking the other side of the road. Two years ago he was invited to make it The Observatorythe early 20th century Orient Express he restored the car with the help of more than 100 craftsmen from all over Europe. At a whopping £60-£80,000 for a 26-hour journey from Venice to Paris, it is now the cheapest train ticket in the world.

JR seems to have had an open check from the owner of the ship Belmond, part of the luxury group LVMH, to create a cargo room with a copper bath, a skylight that opens and closes like a camera aperture and a room with a fire, but says L’Observatoire. it is not about wealth. “It’s art in motion…it’s something that can be done.”

La Caverne, an ephemeral installation and an impressive feat of engineering, cannot. Despite the late opening of 10 days, it will close as planned on 28 June when the fabric cave will be demolished and replaced.

It’s like a circus that comes in, puts on the show and then leaves, but everyone who has seen it remembers it every time they pass the Pont Neuf.”