22
votes
AP's timelapse shows how to make a 400-year-old bridge disappear: the 'French Banksy' creates a 'cave' installation over Paris' Pont Neuf
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Published
- May 21 2026
- Word count
- 760 words
I think it kinda looks really bad, to be honest. Maybe I'll check it out and report back.
A. I don't think Banksy generally does things with a crew of dozens who are filmed during the setup? What makes this person Banksy-adjacent?
B. I like the concept, but the execution is odd. The albedo of the mountain range is so much brighter than the surroundings that it feels both far too bold and rather diminished as compared to the towering mountains it would like to be. At least on video it feels like a molehill trying to puff itself up. Also, the bridge lights remaining on just outside the "cliffs" just ruin it. I'm sure they're needed for river navigation safety, but they're so counter to the illusion that's being attempted.
Banksy definitely has a crew, and I'd wager it's quite substantial these days, although earlier in his career it was probably just a couple friends. And he did allow the crew to be filmed in the past, see the documentary Exit through the gift shop (a bizarre meta-documentary about the guy making a documentary about street artists including Banksy, which was so strange when it came out that it was widely speculated to be a hoax, although everyone involved insists it's genuine).
That said, it's true that Banksy generally doesn't do this kind of month-long publicly approved project. I guess it's just a lazy journalist's way of saying "this is a street artist who is now mainstream, you know, like the one street artist you've ever heard of, that Banksy fella." Just like every hot new fantasy novel has to be the new Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Twilight or whatever is popular at the time.
JR appears to have started out as a photographer who made portraits of youth in a poor Paris suburb and then illegally exhibited them on the walls of said suburb. That, to me, is actually really fucking cool, and it's totally in line with what Banksy has been doing his whole career, much more so than this bridge project.
Maybe the bridge mountain is more impressive in person, because in the videos and photos, it doesn't really work as a visual illusion.
Beyond them both making street art I was wondering the same thing.
Also, if anyone is “the French Banksy” surely it’s Blek le Rat?
I actually thought it looked pretty cool when walking across a nearby bridge (Pont au Change) yesterday at 21:20. We were probably lucky with the lighting and the distance, but the illusion actually worked pretty well (though, as MimicSquid says, the lights and the small bridge signs on the outside broke that a bit). When first we saw it from Rue de Rivoli, it was obvious that is was fabric.
Either way, I usually like temporary installations like this, as disturbing as they may be to some people 😆
This reminds me of some public artwork that I experienced many years ago.
https://christojeanneclaude.net/artworks/the-umbrellas/
I remember not liking it lol and it was somewhat controversial.
Wikipedia (The Umbrellas) has a very short summary about it.
First thing this made me think of was Christo and Jeanne Claude, but rather some of their other works where they wrapped major monuments, like the Arc de Triomphe: https://christojeanneclaude.net/artworks/arc-de-triomphe-wrapped/
According to their website this modern version actually pays homage to Christ and Jeanne Claude's wrapping of the same bridge: https://christojeanneclaude.net/artworks/the-pont-neuf-wrapped/
I prefer the original to be frank.
Funny bit of history about Pont Neuf: it's Paris' oldest bridge but the name means "new bridge". It was named that at the time of its creation because its construction was considered very modern for that time. No houses stacked on top and it had sidewalks to boot.
Edit: made a few grammatical errors and added the bonus fact about the bridge