"Cave" of the Pont Neuf damaged: JR confident of an upcoming reopening

“She’s here. It’s completely crazy.” The artist JR announced on Sunday June 14 that the repair work on La Caverneits installation on the Pont-Neuf in Paris, were on track, making it possible to envisage a soon opening of the work. “We spent days and nights rebuilding it,” indicated JR in a story published on Instagram, conceding that at times, they do not “didn’t see her coming back anymore.”

No opening date has yet been announced but JR has promised to provide news “you know”. “At this stage, we do not have a planned date: the rope access technicians still have to work on the exterior part of the work while we need to redevelop the interior of La Caverne”JR’s press team said in a press release. The opening to the public of the installation, set up on the night of May 20 to 21, to the great joy of JR, was initially scheduled for June 6 until June 28. It had been postponed due to tears in the inflatable structure which overlooks the Parisian bridge. The damage was caused by an exceptional weather phenomenon with strong gusts of wind that affected the center of Paris at the beginning of June.

The Caverns is a monumental work installed in homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the couple of artists now deceased, who wrapped the Pont-Neuf in fabric in 1985, attracting millions of visitors. It is an inflatable structure of imposing size, 120 meters long, 20 meters wide and 2,400 m2 of floor space, with a height varying between 12 and 18 meters. It creates a trompe-l’Å“il look of the rocky appearance of a cave by mixing white, black and different shades of gray.

It was designed to be borrowed on foot for free 24 hours a day, an immersion whose sound universe was entrusted to the electro composer Thomas Bangalter, ex-member of the duo Daft Punk.