JR

Forty-one years after Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Pont-NeufWrapped (1985), La Caverne du Pont Neuf continues JR’s traditionof large-scale trompe-l’oeil projects, which in recent years haveadorned the Louvre, the Paris Opera, and the facades of Italianpalaces. Inspired by Plato’s allegory of the cave and debates onperception (What does it mean to see? Does seeing evoke a senseof truth or imagination?), these works explore the nature of illusion,deception, and art’s extraordinary power to reshape the world. Theycarry consciousness into unprecedented, uncharted universeswhile their public dimension fosters collective experience and asense of shared living. With La Caverne du Pont Neuf, JR onceagain transforms the urban landscape of Paris. Through the magicof art, a still-in-use historic landmark of the City of Light becomesa passage resembling a mountain tunnel, brought to life by a score from Thomas Bangalter, formerly of Daft Punk, and an interactiveprogram to heighten the senses. “It’s a step into the unknown,”says the artist, “a journey. I designed the crossing of the Cave asan experience where fullness and emptiness exist in balance.” Aguaranteed break from everyday life.

The plastic works in the gallery, displayed concurrently with thetransformed Pont-Neuf, are deliberate thematic extensions of theproject, much like the preparatory drawings Christo and Jeanne Claude created in anticipation of their own installations. Forward looking and descriptive, they form the very foundation of the project:a documented history of its step-by-step development, reflectingboth a mental blueprint and the meticulous labor of design andarrangement.

These preparatory sketches, works of art in their own right, arecrafted through a consistent technique that weaves together multiplemedia. The process begins with photography: JR “shoots” thePont-Neuf from various angles and selects his images. It thenmoves into drawing: in his studio, the artist sketches and cuts outthe mineral-like shapes for the actual La Caverne du Pont Neuf,drawing inspiration from landscapes observed in mountainous orunderwater sites, prefiguring its final form. Another medium, zincsheets, serves as the substrate onto which the photographs anddrawings are assembled through collage. Salvaged from fragmentsof Parisian rooftops still bearing the marks and traces of time,they lend a contextual dimension to these works, giving them anunmistakably ‘Parisian’ character. To this process of collage andassembly, reminiscent of Robert Rauschenberg’s Combine Paintingtechnique in its accumulation and juxtaposition of disparate elements,JR adds a final gesture: deliberate crumpling. The aim is to puffthem up and give them volume. Photography, drawing, collage, andmanual manipulation converge to create a seamless blend of two- andthree-dimensional forms, once each element has been ‘mounted’on the zinc base. The result is a construction plan conceived notso much as a technical diagram but as a reverie of the finishedwork, the completed La Caverne du Pont Neuf as it will appear tothe visitor-viewer.

For the past quarter of a century, JR has accompanied his publicartworks with a lighter aesthetic approach, such as his collagesor what he himself calls Dé-compositions. Intended for privatecontemplation, these photographs or lithographs are unified bytheir focus on montage and the juxtaposition of visual fragments. InJR’s symbolic vision, the raw world is a jumble of distinct, separate,isolated forms. It falls to the artist to recompose what reality pullsapart: to gather these fragments together in a spirit of reconciliation,reunification, and harmony. It is as though he were orchestratingour universe, so full of discord and solitude, for our own well-being,aiming for harmony and the elation of the unexpected.

• Paul Ardenne, writer and art historian

Perrotin