JR invites ex Daft Punk Thomas Bangalter to transform the Pont Neuf into a “sound cavern”

Former member of the Daft Punk duo Thomas Bangalter will participate in artist JR’s spectacular project to transform the Pont Neuf in Paris into “a cave” for three weeks in June, the organizers announced on Monday. JR invited the ex-Daft Punk “to imagine the sound dimension of La Caverne”the ambitious project intended to pay homage to the packaging of the Pont Neuf by creators Christo and Jeanne-Claude 40 years later.

From June 6 to 28, the oldest bridge in Paris will be covered 120 meters long and 20 meters wide with rocks with sharp edges, where only the shape of its arches will allow its structure to be recognized. The Cave will then be accessible free of charge, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, specifies the joint press release from JR, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude foundation, the city of Paris and the Amicale des ponts de la capital. “As an acoustic artist”Thomas Bangalter planned to “to wrap it in a unique fabric, which would be sound without being music”.

800 people involved

JR and Thomas Bangalter have already collaborated on several occasions, at the Opéra Garnier and in a Parisian gallery. In total, some 800 people are involved in the project, entirely financed with private funds, according to the press release. This is particularly the case for Snap’s AR Studio Paris, specializing in augmented reality, for “design a series of interactive experiences”. Full-scale tests of the immense structure are currently being carried out in a hangar at Orly airport.

In recent decades, Paris has hosted several spectacular contemporary art projects, such as the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe in 2021, a posthumous work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “Paris is a city that knows how to welcome the monumental. We saw it with the Olympic Games”JR told AFP in 2025.