(Christo) (b. 1935) & Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009) - David Bourdon | Wolfgang Volz (photographs): Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Wrapped Reichstag. Berlin 1971-95.
Köln, Taschen, 1996. 27 x 29 cms. Paginated up to p. 492 only. With colophon leaf, and a piece of the fabric in which the Reichstag was wrapped set into inside rear cover. Richly illustrated throughout in colour.
No 4371 of a special edition of 5000, signed by both artists and Vols.
(There were also 700 copies HC.)
Publisher’s cloth, in a slipcase with a view of Wrapped Reichstag. As new.
Provenance: Jeanette Bonnier (1934-2016).
”After a struggle spanning the seventies, eighties and nineties, the wrapping of the Reichstag was completed on June 24, 1995 by a work force of 90 professional climbers and 120 installation workers. The Reichstag remained wrapped for 14 days and all materials were recycled. 100,000 square meters of thick woven polypropylene fabric with an aluminum surface and 15.6 kilometers of blue polypropylene rope, diameter 3.2 centimeters, were used for the wrapping of the Reichstag. The work of art was entirely financed by the artists, as in all previous projects, through the sale of preparatory studies, drawings, collages, scale models as well as early works and original lithographs. The artists do not accept sponsorship of any kind. The Wrapped Reichstag represents not only 24 years of efforts in the lives of the artists but also years of team work by its leading members Michael S. Cullen, Wolfgang and Sylvia Volz, and Roland Specker. The Reichstag stands up in an open, strangely metaphysical area. The building has experienced its own continuous changes and perturbations: built in 1894, burned in 1933, almost destroyed in 1945, it was restored in the sixties, but the Reichstag always remained the symbol of Democracy. - - - Throughout the history of art, the use of fabric has been a fascination for artists. From the most ancient times to the present, fabric forming folds, pleats and draperies is a significant part of paintings, frescoes, reliefs and sculptures made of wood, stone and bronze. The use of fabric on the Reichstag follows the classical tradition. Fabric, like clothing or skin, is fragile; it translates the unique quality of impermanence. For a period of two weeks, the richness of the silvery fabric, shaped by the blue ropes, created a sumptuous flow of vertical folds highlighting the features and proportions of the imposing structure, revealing the essence of the Reichstag.”