[ad_1]
Before he died last year, artist Christo had not one but two dreams: to wrap the Arc de Triomphe and build a massive structure from oil barrels in the desert sands of Abu Dhabi. The Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped was completed last month and today visitors to Paris will have one last chance to see the arch wrapped in silver blue cloth before it is dismantled tomorrow.
Once he oversees the restoration of the monument to its original glory in time for armistice commemorations next month, Christo’s nephew Vladimir Yavachev will turn his attention east to create the latest monumental project that – if completed – will be the artist’s only large-scale permanent sculpture and the largest work of art in the world.
Originally designed by Christo and his wife and artistic partner Jeanne-Claude in 1977, the Abu Dhabi Mastaba is a simple but massive structure constructed from 410,000 multi-colored 55 gallon steel barrels.
Detailed drawings by Christo show the barrels arranged in a geometric shape inspired by ancient mastabas – or “mudbank” for weary desert travelers – with two vertical sides, two sloping sides, and a flat top from the earliest urban civilizations of Mesopotamia . The colored ends of the barrel will create a mosaic that echoes Islamic designs.
The mastaba will be 150m high – 12m taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and taller than Saint Paul’s Cathedral – 300m long and 225m wide and located in the Liwa Desert 160 km above sea level. south of Abu Dhabi in a region with one of the highest sands in the world. dunes. Speaking to Observer in 2012, Christo set out his vision: “When the sun rises, the vertical wall will become almost full of gold.
He said he wanted to create a sculpture “deeply rooted” in the great tradition of Islamic architecture: “When Louis XIV was building this kitsch castle of Versailles, the greatest architecture in the Middle East was incredibly simple.” The project was initially delayed by the Iran-Iraq war, but Christo relaunched it after being inspired by Abu Dhabi’s attempt to transform itself into a cultural oasis in the Middle East and, most notably, the decision of the Museum of Louvre to open an outpost there.
Christo estimated the Abu Dhabi Mastaba would take up to 30 months to build and create hundreds of jobs. But human rights groups are already concerned about what they see as the state of the emirate using cultural projects to whitewash its violations against migrant workers. The state of the United Arab Emirates announced in June that it was injecting $ 6 billion into cultural and creative projects over the next five years to shift its economy from oil to tourism.
Human Rights Watch said the Louvre Abu Dhabi, officially opened by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, was “tainted” and “accomplished at the cost of human suffering, in a country whose rulers still seem to have broad disregard for human rights. and suppress any critical voice ”.
There are also concerns about the treatment of workers at the long-delayed Abu Dhabi Satellite Museum of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum, which was due to open in 2012 but is not expected to be completed until 2025.
Born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff in Bulgaria, the artist studied in Sofia but defected in 1957, boarding a train from Prague to Vienna and via Geneva to Paris, where he met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, his companion until her death in 2009. The couple moved to New York City in 1964, spending their first three years as illegal immigrants.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude started working with steel oil barrels in Paris in the 1950s because the material was cheap. Beginning in 1958, many of the couple’s works were created with barrels, wrapped and unwrapped. Photos of Christo in the cellar in the basement of Jeanne-Claude’s Parisian apartment in 1960 show him surrounded by barrel sculptures. Among his most famous works were the dressing of the entire Reichstag in Berlin in 1995 and the Pont-Neuf in Paris in 1985.
Yavachev, who oversaw the packaging of the Arc de Triomphe, told the Observer: “It was Christo’s wish to complete these two projects. Now it’s my mission to get the Mastaba for Abu Dhabi.
“I feel very optimistic that we can do this. It may take a while – three, five, 10, even 15 years – but the vision is there and we will. “
Yavachev said the Mastaba was designed and drawn in detail by Christo and that he was ready to go once clearance was given by the Abu Dhabi authorities: and this will be the last so it’s very symbolic.
Source link
