I.M. Pei’s Glass Pyramid Does a Disappearing Act

Opening tomorrow, and running until June 27, tourists and Parisians walking within the 1st arrondissement hoping catch a glimpse of the Louvre Museum’s monumental pyramid may do a double-take. That’s because local multimedia artist JR is creating an optical illusion commissioned by the institution which covers the largest of the four I.M. Pei, FAIA-designed glass and steel structures, completed in 1989, with several swaths of paper sheets on its courtyard-facing façade.

Currently, he and a construction crew are finishing up the installation that features a black and white printed image of the historical, Italian Renaissance palace building. When viewed from the Place du Carrousel—a public square at the end of the museum’s grounds—the image will make a perfectly aligned anamorphosis.