Enigmatic French artist JR will undertake his biggest challenge yet next year, when he will “wrap” the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge over the Seine River in Paris, in tribute to a monumental art project by Christo and Jean-Claude.
For three weeks next June, the 232-metre (761 ft) long bridge will be wrapped in fabric, 40 years after the married artist, known for large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, did the same thing.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian in his Paris studio, JR said that the project – titled Pont Neuf Cavern – was “100% the most challenging thing I’ve ever done”.
“I love a challenge,” said the photographer and street artist. “I realized that this was an opportunity for me to do something that I needed to do and that I hadn’t been able to do before.
“Suddenly, I realized that I could actually wrap this bridge and make a real cave in it.
“You’re going to see this big rock in the middle of town. It’s going to be really disruptive.”
Since the mid-2000s, JR, who is never seen in public without his aviator sunglasses and black fedora, has undertaken large-scale photographic projects in cities around the world.
His collaborative installations range from trompe l’oeil illusions to portraits of people seeking to raise awareness of the marginalized and oppressed.
JR’s career began as a teenage graffiti artist and street “tagger”, working with an eye on the lookout for police. In 2010 the Guardian described him as “the hippest street artist since Banksy”.
His work was collected in the 2015 book Can Art Change the World, which was revised and republished by film director George Lucas last year.
Although he’s no longer completely anonymous – we know JR stands for Jean-René and he’s 42 – he retains an air of mystery despite achieving global fame.
Growing up in one of Paris’s Banlieue housing estates, JR was only two years old when Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped up the Pont Neuf in 1985.
He said, “Obviously, I wasn’t aware of it at the time and art came really late to my life.” “You have to understand, I didn’t really come from this art world. I wasn’t familiar with it at all.”
“Much later, when I discovered the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, I realized what I had missed. I knew the (Pont Neuf) project had a big impact on my city and it made me wish I was there.
“To be asked to do something on the same bridge 40 years later is a huge responsibility, but also an incredible moment for me to create something truly mesmerizing, to push myself to create a piece that, I hope, will leave a mark on the city of Paris – and perhaps on the world – like Christo and Jean-Claude.”
Christo was born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff in Bulgaria in 1935, and arrived in Paris in 1957. There he met Jean-Claude Denat de Guilbon, who was his partner and artistic collaborator until his death in 2009. One of his most famous projects was wrapping the Berlin Reichstag in 1995.
Christo’s nephew Vladimir Yavachev, director of the Christo and Jean-Claude Foundation, said he approached JR to celebrate the anniversary of the original Pont Neuf rap and gave him an artistic carte blanche on the project.
Yavachev said, “I was looking for an artist who could draw inspiration for another project influenced by Christo and I thought of JR. When I called him and asked if he would be interested, he loved the idea.”
Yavachev oversaw the completion of the Arc de Triomphe in 2021, a task Christo was planning at the time of his death in 2020.
In contrast to the struggle Christo had to get permission from the then mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, to wrap the bridge in 1985, the current mayor, Anne Hidalgo, immediately agreed – as did the city’s police chief and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
The Pont Neuf Cave will be open from June 6 to June 28 next year. The bridge will remain open.
JR said the technical details of the project, which involves dozens of engineers and hundreds of workers, are still being worked out.
“The important thing about doing public art is that you can literally see the whole process,” JR said.
“So people will be able to see every step. Nothing will be hidden from them. Everything will be out in the open.”
On how much the project, which is being paid for with private funds, will cost, Yavachev said: “Jean-Claude used to say that it will cost as much as it costs.”
“That’s nice man. That’s a great answer,” Jesse said.
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