Artist JR has created a giant 3D optical illusion from paper that imagines the iconic pyramid at the Louvre in Paris continuing underground.
Named The Secret of the Great Pyramid, the trompe l’oeil was made from 2,000 stickers surrounding Pritzker Prize-winning architect IM Pei‘s glass building, making it appear to project out from a white excavated crater.
At 17,000-square-metres it was French street artist JR‘s largest collage to date, but within a day it was left in shreds after visitors traipsed across it – though he explained that this was his intention.
View this post on Instagram
“The images, like life, are ephemeral. Once pasted, the art piece lives on its own. The sun dries the light glue and with every step, people tear pieces of the fragile paper. The process is all about participation of volunteers, visitors, and souvenir catchers,” explained JR on Twitter.
“This project is also about presence and absence, about reality and memories, about impermanence.”
View this post on Instagram
On Saturday, he shared a photo on his Instagram taken from a storeroom on the third floor of the Louvre Museum, inviting the public to take a look.
A day later he posted another taken image from the same angle, which revealed the damage. Screens have since been installed surrounding the museum entrance for visitors to see the original design of The Secret of the Great Pyramid alongside a time-lapse video of its creation.
“The Louvre Pyramid is a work of art in its own right, a modern icon. Since its creation, it makes dream and inspires the greatest artists,” said Jean-Luc Martinez, director of the Louvre Museum.
“So when JR came to see me, three years after his first spectacular intervention on the Pyramid in 2016, to present me a new proposal of collaborative work, I was immediately seduced. It magnifies this iconic monument and allows everyone to reappropriate it through a popular and festive performance.”
View this post on Instagram
The Secret of the Great Pyramid isn’t the first installation by JR at the Louvre Pyramid. In 2016 he made it disappear using a photographic mural of the Louvre Palace that sits behind it.
Other creatives to use the trompe l’oeil technique include Brooklyn-based Bower Studios that has designed mirrors that look like arcades and portholes, as well as interior designer Kelly Hoppen and celebrity magician Dynamo’s 3D-effect wall coverings. Photo is courtesy of JR-ART.net
The post JR extends IM Pei’s Louvre pyramid with optical illusion to celebrate its 30th anniversary appeared first on Dezeen.