JR - Retour à la caverne

84 pages
28.5 x 22 cm 
Language: French
Paperback
Publisher: Beaux Arts Éditions
2024

As part of its restoration work, the Opéra national de Paris has invited artist JR to dress the scaffolding covering the monument with two successive installations. The first act, in September 2023, showed the entrance to an immense cavern, evoking both the origins of song and dance in ancient Greece and Plato's allegory of the cave - a place where exiting leads to knowledge and understanding of the world. In the second act, the building was removed to reveal the very walls of the cave, covered with hundreds of human footprints. The cave has thus become a sanctuary, protecting its inhabitants from the violence of the world. Darkness gave way to light. While the first act referred to the origins of ballet and opera, the second act was more rooted in cave art. In the final scene, on November 12, the cavern enveloping the façade of the Opéra was transformed into a living spectacle, revealing 153 dancers on 30m-high scaffolding. The performance was choreographed by Damien Jalet to music by Thomas Bangalter.

Beaux Arts Éditions followed the conception and realization of this extraordinary production step by step, and takes a behind-the-scenes look at this unprecedented multi-sensory creation, with in-depth reports, interviews and photos.