French artist JR has taken over Paris’s Pont Neuf—the oldest bridge over the Seine, and the city’s first built from stone, not wood. Still warm from unveiling his facade for the Venice Venice Hotel during the Venice Biennale, JR’s hotly awaited hometown installation La Caverne du Pont Neuf (2026) measures 120 meters long, 20 meters wide, and, in some spots, 18 meters tall. On June 6, it will start welcoming guests inside, where sound and augmented reality await. More than 800 people would have helped pull it off.
This artistic undertaking concludes a five-year series of large-scale trompe l’oeil works by JR, spanning La Ferita (2021) in Florence, Punto di Fuga (2021) in Rome, and La Nascita (2024) in Milan. This latest project takes its cue from The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris (1975–85), the beloved installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, with the blessing of the late artists’ foundation. The L’Amicale des Ponts de Paris endowment fund spearheaded for the project, with contributions from Snap Inc., Bloomberg Philanthropies, Paris Aéroport, and Salesforce.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris (1975-85.) Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1985 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, courtesy of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
JR has also said that this latest installation concludes inquiries initiated by Retour à la Caverne (2023), a similarly rocky public artwork on the facade of Paris’s Opéra Garnier, which dancers activated that same year. What’s more, La Caverne participates in JR’s longtime practice of partnering with the public on various projects—as he did with 100 volunteers in Lviv in 2022 and 48 current and former prisoners in L.A. in 2019, for instance.
There’s no way JR could have created Retour à la Caverne alone. When addressing how to put his own spin Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Pont Neuf Wrapped, he looked to the iconic bridge at its most basic level, endeavoring to reunite its Lutetian limestone with the Paris Basin it was once quarried from.
Installation of La Cavernem du Pont Neuf , Paris, May 2026. Photo: Eléa Jeanne Schmitter. © 2026 Atelier JR, courtesy of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
Realistically, illusion would be necessary. So, drawing from Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s air-based artworks, like 5,600 Cubicmeter Package (1967–68) in Kassel, JR worked with French inflatable firm Air Toiles Concept to engineer and fabricate La Caverne du Pont Neuf from 18,900 square meters of fabric and 20,000 cubic meters of pressurized air. (The use of ephemeral air also figures into JR’s eye for sustainability details, like using organic ink on the fabric draped over this new inflatable.) In true Christo and Jeanne-Claude fashion, La Caverne had a dress rehearsal too, in a historic hangar at Orly airport.
Installation of La Caverne du Pont Neuf , Paris, May 2026. Photo: Eléa Jeanne Schmitter © 2026 Atelier JR, courtesy of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
Scores more lighting, catering, and security professionals will have been involved by the time La Caverne du Pont Neuf ends its run on June 28. And that’s not to mention the Snap employees staffing the free Spectacles loans for the public to view the augmented reality component, or the Bloomberg ambassadors on-site to administer its Bloomberg Connect guide, or even Thomas Bangalter—half of Daft Punk—who is following his participation in Retour à La Caverne by doing sound design for La Caverne du Pont Neuf.
Admission will be free. The spectacle will be visible in the surrounding area and beyond, all the way to Charles de Gaulle airport, where aesthetic elements related to La Caverne will abound. Perrotin will host a commemorative exhibition too, and France TV will broadcast a documentary. JR, meanwhile, is still deciding what he’ll do with La Caverne next, if anything.
La Caverne du Pont Neuf is on view June 6–28.
