Postponement of Arc de Triomphe wrap-up to 2021, Christo's new project

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s new project, the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris that was announced in 2019 and was scheduled for the fall of this year, will slip by a year. This was announced by Christo (Christo Yavachev; Gabrovo, 1935) on his official website, explaining that the postponement is due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The project will be on view from September 18 to October 3, 2021.

The work, entitled L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped (Project for Paris), Place de l’Étoile - Charles de Gaulle, was one of the most anticipated events of the year: the monument will be wrapped with 25 thousand square meters of blue recyclable polypropylene fabric, and seven thousand square meters of red rope. Instead, the exhibition that is to serve as a prelude to the event, titled The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Project for Paris, 1975-85, will take place as soon as possible.The exhibition will tell the story of the project to wrap the Pont Neuf in Paris, as well as the Parisian years (between 1958 and 1964) of Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (Casablanca, 1935 - New York, 2009). The exhibition will be held at the Centre Pompidou and, Christo said, “will reveal the historical context of the period in which we lived and worked in Paris.”

It was 1961 when Christo and Jeanne-Claude began working together, three years after they met: thus began one of the best-known artistic couples of all time. The project of wrapping the Arc de Triomphe was born in those very years: at the time, Christo was living in a room near the Arc de Triomphe and had sketched out numerous studies, including a photomontage of the Arc de Triomphe wrapped and seen from the avenue Foch, dating from 1962. Other studies were carried out between the 1970s and 1980s: the project will thus see fruition almost sixty years after its conception.

As usual, the project will be financed through the sale of preparatory plans, drawings and collages, as well as works made between the 1950s and 1960s and original lithographs on other subjects. The project, Christo made known, will not make use of public subsidies. To ensure that it is carried out in the utmost safety, the work will be carried out under the supervision of the Centre des monuments nationaux, the body in charge of protecting French monuments.

Pictured: Christo, L’Arc de Triumph, Wrapped (Project for Paris) Place de l’Etoile - Charles de Gaulle (2019; pencil, pastel, enamel, photograph by Wolfgang Volz, map and tape, 43.2 x 55.9 cm)

Postponement of Arc de Triomphe wrap-up to 2021, Christo's new project

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