Paris bridge becomes ancient cavern in JR's new art installation

Paris's oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, has been dramatically reimagined as a "Pont Neuf Cavern," a monumental art installation by French street artist JR. For weeks, a black structure obscured the 17th-century bridge over the Seine, but its doors finally opened, inviting the public into a multisensory experience.

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It feels like the city has disappeared. You know the river is right outside, but for a moment you’re somewhere ancient.

Visitors step from the bright riverfront into a dark, artificial cavern, where the air carries the scent of damp earth and ancient stone, a carefully crafted illusion by olfactory expert Sarah Bouasse. The smell shifts along the passage, from wet earth to something warmer and faintly animal. A sound installation by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of Daft Punk, adds to the atmosphere with low rumbles and echoes.

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Usually I cross here without looking up once. Today I felt the stones under my feet. And smelled them too. It makes you walk like a child again.

JR's work transforms the bridge, which was completed in 1607, into a space that engages visitors through their sense of smell, hearing, and touch. The installation, made from printed fabric and air, rises 18 meters above the Seine. It pays homage to the 1985 Christo and Jeanne-Claude installation that wrapped the bridge in fabric.

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You enter into the darkness, and emerge into the light on the other side.

Beyond the physical sensations, visitors can use their phones to activate an augmented reality experience, featuring digital bats and dancers. JR connects this to Plato's allegory of the cave, suggesting that modern screens and algorithms shape our perception of reality. However, the installation's most powerful effects are achieved without technology, prompting a visceral connection to the ancient-feeling space.

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It’s completely strange.