L’ARC DE TRIOMPHE, WRAPPED
THE PLACE DE L'ÉTOILE IS TRANSFORMED
For a few weeks, the Place de l'Étoile has been getting busy. After the Pont-Neuf in 1985, it's the Arc de Triomphe's turn to be wrapped up for a few days. This project was the dream of the artist Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude. The idea of wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in tens of thousands of square meters of fabric dates back to a photomontage made by the artist himself in 1962. But it was not until 2017 that the artist returned to his project of stuffing the Arc de Triomphe. In the meantime, Christo has worked on other projects of the same scope such as the Berlin Reichstag packed in 1995, or in 2016 with The Floating Piers on Lake Iseo in Italy.
In 2018, the couple presented their project to the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, which manages the Arc de Triomphe, among other things. After several months of study, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's project was finally accepted and retained by the Center. It is finally a post-mortem event in memory and tribute to Christo that this project is born, following his death on May 31, 2020. Until the end, Christo will have validated and worked on all aspects of this titanic project.
A HUGE PROJECT
This ambitious and especially costly project is self-financed through the sale of a multitude of Christo's works. The project does not benefit from any public or private funding.
The figures are mind-boggling. The packaging of the Arc de Triomphe is a colossal project involving 25,000 m2 of recyclable fabrics and 3 km of red rope.
For 16 days and 16 days only, this event is to be discovered by all! From September 18th to October 3rd the final work will be accessible and visible to all.
Don't miss to discover this incredible event during your visit in Paris. Until then, a live session is maintained on the YouTube channel Christo and Jeanne-Claude to follow the progress of the work.
See you soon!
Credit: @christojeanneclaude