In 1985, visionary land art duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude unveiled The Pont Neuf Wrapped, a striking, large-scale installation that cloaked Paris’ oldest bridge in 41,800 square meters of golden fabric, fastened with 13 kilometers of rope and 12 tons of steel cables.
“I wanted it to become a sculpture for the first time, but an ephemeral one,” Christo explained. Marking the efforts of over 300 specialists across ten years, the installation saw three million visitors over its two-week exhibition period.
Forty years later, French artist JR is set to honor the duo’s legacy with an equally ambitious reimagination. Slated for September 2025, Projet Pont Neuf will once again transform the bridge, this time, into a cavernous delight.
Created in collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, recent renderings reveal towering rock formations that bridge both sides of the river, evoking the quarries from which Paris’ iconic stone buildings were created from. “As the Seine becomes swimmable again and nature reclaims its place in the urban landscape, Projet Pont Neuf will juxtapose the raw and untamed with the refined elegance of Paris,” the foundation notes.
In song with the couple’s belief in art as a catalyst for public dialogue, JR envisions the project as both a tribute and provocation: “The debate that a monumental project in the public space can provoke is of equal value to its artistic realization,” wrote the artist. “Art transforms, and renews the way we see the world around us.”
Head to the foundation’s website for more updates and information on the project.
