Sawt Falasteen - How Paris's oldest bridge will become an 'immersive cave'

Once hailed as the "French Banksy" after the secretive British street artist, JR has become famous for outsize projects, having already transformed the Palais Garnier Paris opera to look like a cave and mounted a painting that made the famous Louvre pyramid seem to disappear.

Now he intends to create a 120-metre "cave" along the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge over the Seine in Paris, that anyone will be free to walk through.

"You will be completely lost in terms of your sense of direction and reference points in relation to the outside world," JR, whose real name is Jean Rene, told AFP in a recent interview at his studio in Paris.

"It's going to be a monumental project, but this is a city that knows how to welcome monumental projects," he said, hailing how Paris handled last year's Olympic Games.

He said the project, which will open next June after two years of work, was an homage to an earlier work by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

The France-based couple wrapped the same bridge in woven fabric in 1985.

"The task is made easier for me because I'm following in their footsteps," he said.

Easier in terms of construction, but also in terms of administration.

While Christo and Jeanne-Claude battled for 10 years to make their project a reality in the face of political reluctance, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo welcomed JR's plan calling it a "gift" to Paris.

Cars and buses will be banned from the bridge during the installation's run between June 6 and 28.

U.AlSharif--SF-PST