LA CAVERNE DU PONT NEUF

La Caverne du Pont Neuf, a monumental temporary work of art by JR will be on view from June 6 to 28, 2026. The artwork will pay tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Pont Neuf Wrapped, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. This will be a time-limited opportunity for Parisians and visitors to experience a reimagination of Paris’ oldest bridge. The project will be made possible thanks to a partnership with the L’Amicale des Ponts de Paris endowment fund.

JR’s vision was inspired by the quarries from which the bridge’s stones were extracted and emphasizes the origins of Paris’ historic architecture. La Caverne du Pont Neuf will juxtapose the raw and untamed with the refined elegance of Paris.

“My vision for this project is rooted in both the past and present of this iconic bridge,” JR explains. “I once was also very inspired by the artistic vision of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and I share their idea that the mission of art is to make the public think—or rethink about the familiar. The debate that a project in a public space can provoke is of equal value to its artistic realization. Art is a transformation, and a way of renewing the way we look at the world around us. Through the dream of La Caverne du Pont Neuf, this is what I hope to make possible in Paris”.

Press Release, November 30, 2025

Communiqué de presse, le 30 novembre 2025

JR and his team, in coordination with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and L’Amicale des Ponts de Paris, have been thoughtfully planning and working with local officials on La Caverne du Pont Neuf. Extensive technical studies were conducted in order to attain the necessary authorizations. During the exhibition dates, La Caverne du Pont Neuf will be accessible to the public by strolling across the bridge or beneath, whether by ferry or on the pathways along the banks of the Seine. The artwork will be free to all and funded privately, not with government sources. More details will be announced in 2026.

For JR, La Caverne du Pont Neuf will be a crowning moment in an artistic cycle that began in 2020, during which he has continually questioned the growing disconnection and isolation among citizens, particularly exacerbated by the pandemic and the successive lockdowns. It is in this spirit that JR has created several trompe-l'oeil artworks, creating breaches in the facades of iconic buildings, with La Ferita in Florence (2021), Punto de Fuga in Rome (2021), and La Nascita in Milan (2024). 

This approach also inspired the creation of Retour à la Caverne (Return to the Cave) on the facade of the Paris Opera (2023). The Palais Garnier installation encouraged viewers to return to a romanticism inspired by the natural world. The cave beckoned viewers to peer inside, invoking Plato's allegory —a place where the exit leads to knowledge and an understanding of the world. 

The two acts of Retour à la Caverne, which ultimately came to life in a performance involving 153 dancers, are the prelude to what La Caverne du Pont Neuf will conclude. With the transformation of the iconic bridge into a cave, JR aims to accompany a movement inviting citizens to abandon blindness and isolationism in favor of lucidity, togetherness and concord among all.