Advertisement

Christo

Christo

Hello, my name is Christo and I want to wrap the Pont Neuf in silky fabric for fourteen days.
Christo’s project for the Paris Review, a print showcasing a copy of the magazine wrapped in thick plastic and tied with twine, is directly reminiscent of his larger works, such as wrapping Australian coastlines, but surely less of a bureaucratic headache. Some of his immense packaging projects have taken twenty-three years to fully execute. Christo was born in 1935 in Gabravo, Bulgaria. In 1953 he relocated to Sophia to study art, moving to Prague and finally to Paris to continue his education. Upon relocating to New York, his work began to challenge the existing parameters of modern art, increasing in scale while maintaining a Warholian pop-art sensibility. In 1961 Christo, together with his partner Jeanne-Claude, created his first temporary outdoor work of art, Dockside Packages. All the materials were borrowed from dockworkers, and the piece remained near the waterfront of the Rhine River for two weeks. Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s vast projects allow people to experience art outside of the institution of museums, and greatly alter the a population’s communal space.

Art