Artist Christo Speaks on art and on work with pratt students
Artist Christo with students from Design Studio IVMaking his fourth visit to Pratt Institute, the Bulgarian-born, French artist Christo gave a talk on March 10 about two works in progress —Over The River and The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi — as part of the School of Architecture Spring Lecture series. These will be the first works he will complete without his partner in creativity, his wife Jeanne-Claude, who passed away in 2009.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude achieved international renown for large-scale environmental works that wrapped buildings, monuments, and nature itself completely in cloth. Together they persevered for the many years it took to gain permission to achieve their works, facing heavy opposition from authorities and difficulties in financing.
“We failed to get permission for 36 projects,” recalled Christo. “All this is part of creativity. In 46 years, we did 22 projects. When a project is in our hearts, we have to do it.”
Christo cited as an example, The Gates, an installation of 7,503 saffron-colored fabric cloths in New York’s Central Park, which took 26 years of planning and perseverance before it could be realized in February 2005, thanks to the intervention of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Seated in the front row with the audience, Christo showed slides of Over the River, a work-in-progress that calls for translucent fabric panels to be constructed on the Arkansas River near Canon City, Colorado, in 2014. Showing maps and photos of the site, Christo described how he and Jeanne-Claude searched for three years for an appropriate location before choosing among 89 rivers the one that would best allow recreational rafting while the installation is on view.
Artist Christo on stage at Memorial Hall“We never do the same thing again,” said Christo, as he projected images of numerous projects, among them The Umbrellas (1991, a simultaneous installation of 1,340 blue umbrellas in Japan and 1,760 yellow ones in California; and Wrapped Reichstag (1995, a project rejected three times before a debate and vote by members of the German parliament finally allowed it to happen). “Each project is a unique concept,” Christo remarked. “And temporary art is a conscious decision. We like to be confronted with something we will never see again.”
Another work in progress, The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi, a project for the United Arab Emirates, enlists the aid of Pratt architecture students. Conceived in 1977 and begun in 1978, it will be a massive work of art made of approximately 410,000 horizontally stacked oil barrels of various bright colors situated in the Arabian desert. Shrubbery will be planted around The Mastaba, a trapezoidal geometric shape that is a forerunner of the pyramids. There will be no ingress into the work; it will only be experienced from the outside. Like all Christo’s projects, The Mastaba’s only purpose is to be itself, giving visual satisfaction to viewers by enabling them to “enjoy the physicality of the art,” as Christo puts it. Parking and public facilities will be available, and Pratt students are involved in the design of a Visitors’ Campus.
Earlier in the day Christo had visited Design Studio IV, a graduate-level class in the School of Architecture led by Visiting Instructor Erich Schoenenberger. The studio is helping Christo develop a comprehensive possible solution for the project’s Visitors’ Campus. It will have a small exhibition space, a prayer space, a tour departure facility, and a small overnight accommodation facility for visitors.
The challenge to Pratt students is to design this campus without formally referencing their design to The Mastaba, yet addressing the desert conditions of the site. As Christo stated during the lecture’s Q&A session, “Four teams of students articulated how to approach this project, and we had a lively exchange and discussion about the visual presentation materials we will need to visualize the Visitor’s Campus for decision makers.” Christo added that the project has not changed since the death of Jeanne-Claude.
Photos: Kevin Wick
Gateway Editors
Reader Comments (4)
I would just like to say that it would be nice if Pratt told students in other majors about lectures like this. I would have been very interested in attending this but was unaware.
Pratt - you do this kind of stuff all the time, it benefits NO ONE.
amen
I totally agree with the first poster. I was practically in tears when I saw I had missed this lecture, and I wondered to myself "How did I not know about this?" I've heard similar mutterings around campus. I wonder if Pratt could bring Christo back, and maybe invite some students next time?
I am very disappointed in the lack of advertisement this lecture had. I should not hear about Christo coming to Pratt via word of mouth. This is a terrific example of the disfunction between departments that is "Pratt". Their are many universities in the city that offer terrific lectures, events, and other great things that they promote as wide as other campuses. Just a few weeks ago i was informed of a lecture i could attend at Columbia. Its funny how even the lectures at Pratt are a mystery.