The Caverne du Pont Neuf, an installation full of air and emptiness

The Cavern of Pont Neuf imagined by JR “in homage to the Pont Neuf packed with Christo and Jeanne Claude” opened its doors Monday evening ten days late. The press release reminds us: “Everything was almost ready when on June 2, powerful gusts of wind coupled with a hailstorm occurred concomitantly with work in progress on the exterior canvas, causing tears on the ends and deterioration of the inflatable envelope”. The sky was unleashed.

Homage or simple cover, The Cave by JR diverges in more than one way from the work produced by Christo and Jeanne Claude more than forty years ago, to which it refers. No vehicle can cross it and visitors do not roam freely with their noses in the wind either; it is an “immersive installation”. The oldest bridge in Paris, entirely covered by a tarpaulin, is thus transformed into a tunnel; the creation is not grafted onto the monument, it limits its use. Although access is free, it is nevertheless supervised by a security system which imposes a direction of traffic on pedestrians. You enter at the Place du Pont Neuf Christo et Jeanne Claude (to the south), you exit at Quai du Louvre (to the north), without being able to turn around (but also, for example, without luggage or a large dog). Facing the release, La Samaritaine hosts the commercial stopover where a selection of derivative products designed in collaboration with the artist is presented.

The giant tunnel (20 meters wide and 120 meters long) surprises as much by its scale as by its absence of colors and luminosity. The print on the tarpaulin reproduces in uniform black and white the mineral appearance of a cave whose arches rise to 12 or even 18 meters in places. It’s difficult not to salute the technical performance which gives shape to this 3-dimensional trompe-l’oeil with invisible connections. The Cave by JR demonstrates remarkable project management and an exceptional deployment of resources, a distant echo of the excess of the ephemeral sculpture by Christo and Jeanne Claude.

Is this a work of art? The question was already debated in 1985. Beyond the aesthetic gesture – it is reasonable to think that Christo’s drawing had more finesse – this Cave is more akin to a setting – the sound dimension of which was entrusted to Thomas Bangalter, former member of the Daft Punk duo – than to an artistic installation. “I feel like I’m somewhere else”enthusiastically affirmed a Quebec tourist to whom the JdA asked his feelings. A Ferris wheel or a ghost train causes the same kind of entertainment.

Current events in the art world resonate in a fun way with this project. A few days ago, the Antoine de Galbert Foundation announced a donation to [mac] Marseille from the work of Julien Berthier entitled L’Invisible, also made of an artificial rock. Invited in 2021 for a residency in the heart of the Calanques national park, Julien Berthier imagined transforming a motorboat into a sculpted reef, the work placed in the water blending, not without humor, into the landscape from which it is inspired.

To return to The Cavein general this curiously produces a silent public, where the Pont Neuf packageIt sparked exchanges between complete strangers. It is a silent crowd that advances. From this point of view, JR made a relatively low-risk bet. His proposal relies on legitimate curiosity but also on the pan-urgic instinct; onlookers move forward, their phones held out at arm’s length, this prosthesis appearing to have replaced the torch once brandished by our distant ancestors. The difference is that the processions which venture into The Cave do not explore the unknown, but the void.