'It's Really Realistic': French Artist JR Creates Optical Illusion Of Cliffs Below Eiffel Tower

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Cliffs below the Eiffel Tower? French contemporary artist JR has created the optical illusion that the Eiffel Tower is perched precariously over a rocky ravine.

The artwork shows a giant Eiffel Tower in black and white, its feet standing across a precipice between two cliffs and its top cropped, to reveal the real Eiffel Tower.

When a visitor stands in the right spot, the artwork in the foreground and the tower in the background line up with each other, and the illusion is created. The spectacle attracts lines of visitors, taking photos of friends and family walking on or across the "cliffs."

"I think it's really cool because it's really realistic," Lara Watson, a visitor to Paris, tells Reuters. "I like that it combines with the Eiffel Tower, so the piece of art becomes a piece of art because of the Eiffel Tower already behind it."

JR is known for huge format street art. In 2016, he made the Louvre museum's iconic pyramid "disappear" against the backdrop of the Louvre Palace.

"I love people being destabilized and trying to find their point and people may never find the point and take a photo of the pyramid from the side, it doesn't matter," JR told the Associated Press at the time.

And in 2017, he created the image of a 65-foot tall Mexican child peering over a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"As an artist I've seen that is amazing that the piece arrives at a moment that it creates more dialogue because the idea itself is to raise questions," he told reporters then. "I do not have the answers and I'm actually by listening to the answers by listening on how the people feel about it, on each side and from elsewhere I get to to learn about it."

JR unveiled his latest piece on May 19, the day that restaurant terraces re-opened as the COVID-19 pandemic eases, and Parisians were eager to return to a form of normalcy.

"I think this comes on a perfect day, because with the reopening of outdoor restaurant tables, we have the impression that Paris is suddenly coming back to life," says Lisa Dakdaki, another visitor to Paris. "I think it's nice for someone to take this type of initiative with the Eiffel Tower, which is a symbol of the city."