Christo, the artist who wraps the world, reminisces in Tokyo
Christo speaks at the 21_21 Design Sight museum the day before his exhibit Life=Works=Projects opens.Christo -- the artist behind The Gates in Central Park, New York City and The Umbrellas in Ibaraki and California -- made his way back to Japan in February for the opening of a new exhibition Life=Works=Projects at 21_21 Design Sight. Issey Miyake, who is a longtime friend and also runs the museum, personally commissioned the exhibit when he heard the news that Christo's wife and collaborator Jeanne Claude passed away last November.
The Life=Works=Projects exhibit features over 100 sketches and photos as well as six documentaries offering looks at projects finished, unrealized and two that are ongoing. Details include sketches of an idea to connect Odaiba to the mainland with fabric-wrapped walkways that was scrapped, and other projects in Japan and worldwide that were never realized.
The day before the opening, Christo gave a personal tour of the exhibit and offered behind the scenes nuggets on his unforgettable works and processes:
On wrapping the world:
"The hardest part of our work is getting permission. When we deal with bureaucrats and governments, they always look for precedent on which to grant us permission but there is never precedent for what we do! Then after we finally get the go-ahead it takes two years to gather all materials and get funding. I have never had an assistant so all of these sketches are by my own hand. Now I am working on a project for the Arkansas River that will be like a tarp over it which has already cost 6 million dollars in lawyers, engineers and consultants. But I am hoping it will be realized in 2013 for Jeanne Claude and the people who use the river."
"My signature is on it, but actually the gift was all Jeanne Claude's idea. You can see that one of the books inside is 'The Odyssey' by Homer in French. She chose that because Issey's perfume, L’eau d’Issey and 'L'Odyssey' are pronounced the same in French. She scoured used book shops in New York to find this one as a thank-you gift for being our friend for so many decades. She was a big fan of his clothes and in many photographs you'll see she is wearing his pieces, which made up for the fact I am less than fashionable."
On the unrealized work Project for Barcelona:
"We wanted to wrap the statue of Christopher Columbus on the bay in Barcelona because it is the biggest statue of him in the world. We asked for permission from the mayor of Barcelona, and he said no. Then he was assassinated. Not by us. So we asked the next mayor in, and he said no. Then he too, was assassinated. By us. Kidding! Finally the next mayor said it was OK and gave us permission, and everything was ready to go when we just canceled everything. It just didn't interest us anymore. Jeanne Claude explained it as being like a 35-year old who finally gets the tricycle they wanted as a child for Christmas. But we just didn't have the interest anymore."
Christo and Jeanne Claude: Life=Works=Projects: February 13 to April 4, 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo Midtown Garden, 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, tel. 03 3475 2121.
