The Pont Neuf in Paris, the city’s oldest bridge, has been transformed into an artificial cavern. The monumental installation, created by French street artist JR, is free to enter around the clock through June 28. Visitors can experience the familiar crossing through their noses, ears, and feet.
The Installation
The Pont Neuf Cavern is made largely from printed fabric and air, and it transforms the 17th-century bridge into an artificial cavern rising 18 meters above the Seine. The smell is central to the illusion, with olfactory expert Sarah Bouasse creating two shifting scents: drawing on geosmin and isoborneol, compounds associated with the aroma released when rain strikes dry earth.
A sound installation by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of the French electronic duo Daft Punk, accompanies the work, filling the cavern with low rumbles, echoes, and pulses. Visitors can also raise their phones to activate an augmented-reality experience developed with tech company Snap.
Artist’s Vision
JR’s installation asks people to experience the familiar crossing through their senses. It also pays tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose 1985 wrapping of the bridge in pale golden fabric drew an estimated 3 million visitors. The installation’s strongest effects require no phone, and it’s completely strange, as one visitor described it.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
