From 6 to 28 June 2026 JR will transform the Pont Neuf in Paris into La Caverne du Pont Neuf, a monumental installation inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The work, created with an inflatable structure and enriched by augmented reality and the sound dimension of Thomas Bangalter, will be free and accessible 24 hours a day
In one hundred days the heart of Paris will change its face. From 6 to 28 June 2026 the Pont Neuf will become The Caverne du Pont Neufa temporary work imagined by JR as a tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their legendary The Pont Neuf Wrappedwhich in 1985 wrapped around the oldest bridge in the French capital.
The installation will be accessible for free, 24 hours a day, and financed exclusively through the sale of JR’s works and private support, without public funds. A principle consistent with the ethics of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s large projects: total independence and limited duration.
A cave in the center of the City of Lights
The idea was born from a poetic and archaeological intuition at the same time. JR was inspired by the quarries from which the limestone of the Pont Neuf was extracted, completed in 1607 and the first Parisian bridge built entirely in Lutetia stone.
The structure – 120 meters long, 20 meters wide and up to 18 meters high – will cover approximately 2,400 square meters. But the real material of the work will be the air. A monumental double-walled inflatable architecture, supported by continuous ventilation, will give shape to an artificial “rock” composed of 80 arches of printed structural canvas.
18,900 square meters of fabric and 20,000 cubic meters of air will be needed to generate a mineral trompe-l’oeil that will transform the bridge into an urban cave, a place suspended between primordial nature and architectural refinement.
Go through the work
The outside will amaze, but the inside will surprise. JR imagines crossing the Caverne as “a symbolic passage, a journey into the unknown”. The visitor will not be a spectator but a co-author, involved in an immersive experience that brings fullness and emptiness into dialogue.
Augmented reality developed with Snap Inc. will contribute to giving depth to the project, transforming the route into an interactive and visual experience. AR, inspired by the chronophotographic research of Étienne-Jules Marey, will allow us to “see beyond” the physical structure, fusing technology and historical memory.
The sound of Thomas Bangalter
The sonic dimension of the work was imagined by Thomas Bangalter, former member of Daft Punk. For Bangalter, who as a child saw the Pont Neuf wrapped by Christo, the project represents a return to a founding image of his own artistic memory.
His contribution will not be a traditional soundtrack, but an electroacoustic “acoustic matter” capable of mineralising the structure, making it monolithic and almost mystical.
A monumental and responsible project
Eight hundred professionals will work on the realization of the work. The materials will be produced in Europe, with fabrics printed in France using water-based inks free of solvents and volatile organic compounds.
The choice of an inflatable system drastically reduces the environmental impact: no invasive foundations on the historic bridge, limited transport thanks to the compressibility of the materials. At the end of the presentation, on June 28, the work will be dismantled and will have a second life, yet to be defined.
A dialogue between past and present
The Caverne du Pont Neuf also marks the conclusion of an artistic cycle by JR that began during the pandemic, focused on the idea of fracture and reconnection: from the architectural illusions of Florence, Rome and Milan to the “cave” of the Opéra Garnier in 2023.
By transforming the oldest bridge in Paris into a symbolic cave, JR invites citizens to emerge from isolation and rediscover a shared outlook on the world.
Forty years after the wrapping up of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Paris returns to being a laboratory of monumental and temporary art. A city that allows itself to be crossed, once again, not only by passers-by, but by ideas.
