The Art of Crossing Over
Some artworks become inseparable from the moment in which we encounter them.
Some artworks become intertwined with our memories in unexpected ways. Years later, we no longer remember only what we saw, but also who we were when we experienced it.
That was exactly what happened to me when I visited JR’s La Caverne du Pont Neuf in Paris. Standing in front of the installation, I found myself thinking not only about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s famous wrapping of the Pont Neuf in 1985, but also about another artwork, another place, and another moment in my life: The Floating Piers on Lake Iseo.
Summers of changes
I visited The Floating Piers on July 1st, 2016. It was my nineteenth birthday and the day after my final high school oral examination. A few months later, I would begin studying engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Looking back, it was a moment suspended between two chapters of life: one had just ended, while the next had not yet begun… together with the best summer in life young people! Like many visitors, I was fascinated by the experience of walking across the floating walkway, surrounded by water and thousands of people. Yet what has remained with me over the years is not only the visual impact of the installation, but its association with that particular summer and the sense of possibility that came with it.
Ten years later, June 28th 2026, I encountered another large-scale public artwork at another moment of transition. I visited La Caverne du Pont Neuf during my first days in Paris, shortly after moving from Milan. As I was beginning to discover a new city not just as a tourist and adapt to a different environment, JR’s installation offered an unexpected connection to a memory from Italy.
The circumstances were different, but the feeling was familiar. Once again, I found myself standing at the beginning of something new, reflecting on the path that had brought me there and on the one still ahead.
Christo, JR, and the transformation of space
Although their artistic languages differ, Christo and JR share an interest in transforming the way we perceive public space.
Christo’s projects physically altered landscapes and monuments, encouraging people to look at familiar places from a different perspective. JR approaches public space through photography and visual illusion, creating installations that challenge perception and invite viewers to engage with the surrounding environment in new ways.
In La Caverne du Pont Neuf, the dialogue with Christo is explicit, but the work stands on its own as a contemporary reinterpretation of one of Paris’s most iconic landmarks. More than recreating the past, it opens a conversation between memory, place, and artistic imagination.
Art, engineering, and responsibility
Experiencing large-scale public art also raises an important question: what is the environmental footprint of temporary installations? This discussion accompanied many of Christo’s projects and continues today with contemporary interventions in public spaces. Transforming landscapes and monuments inevitably requires materials, logistics, transportation, and resources.
Ten years ago, I experienced The Floating Piers primarily through curiosity and wonder, but I also found myself reflecting on the broader implications of projects of this scale. Appreciating their artistic and cultural value should not prevent us from considering their environmental impact.
Rather than diminishing the experience, I believe these questions add another layer to it. They encourage us to think not only about how art transforms the spaces we inhabit, but also about how such transformations can be approached responsibly.
Beyond their artistic vision, projects like The Floating Piers and La Caverne du Pont Neuf are also remarkable engineering achievements. They require complex planning, structural design, logistics, safety assessments, and the coordination of hundreds of people working behind the scenes.
Perhaps this dual perspective is what I find most fascinating. These installations exist at the intersection of creativity and engineering, where artistic ambition becomes possible only through technical expertise. At the same time, that complexity also invites reflection on their environmental footprint and on the responsibility that comes with transforming public spaces, even temporarily.
Crossing Over
Looking back, what connects these two installations in my memory is not only Christo’s legacy or the dialogue between two artists. It is the fact that I encountered them at two significant moments of change. The Floating Piers will always remind me of the transition from high school to university. La Caverne du Pont Neuf will remind me of my arrival in Paris and the beginning of a new chapter abroad.
Ten years apart, both experiences became associated with a crossing: not only through physical space, but through different stages of life. And perhaps that is one of the reasons why certain artworks remain with us long after they disappear.
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