“I know these projects are totally irrational, totally useless. The world can live without them, nobody needs them, only me and Jeanne-Claude. She always made the point that they exist because we like to have them, and if others like them, it’s only a bonus.” – Christo

Christo and his longtime partner, Jeanne-Claude, conceived art projects on a massive scale, you know, like wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont-Neuf Bridge in Paris in fabric, creating a 24-mile Running Fence in Sonoma and Marin counties in California, and bedecking New York City’s Central Park with The Gates, a project that it took Mayor Bloomberg to green light after it had been rejected by the puritanical and tyrannical Mayor Giuliani before him because he didn’t like art and didn’t want all those art-curious people trampling all over our beloved Central Park!

Then Bloomberg said Yes, New York City would be honored to host The Gates, and people came from all over to stroll Central Parks pathways underneath orange flags suspended overhead.

And they were enchanted.
Mesmerized.
Fascinated.
And New York City rejoiced.
And then The Gates were gone forever.

This is what Christo and Jeanne-Claude give New York City and the world – totally useless site-specific works of art on a grand scale.

They believed that if you can imagine something, then it can and should be manifested. That the “totally irrational, totally useless” are rational and useful. That the world cannot live without that which it can live without.
That it is good “they exist because we like to have them.”

“The important part of this project is the temporary part, the nomadic quality. The work needs to be gone, because I do not own the work, no one does. This is why it is free. – Christo

Christo’s newest project is Walking on Water. Take a walk on the wild side. Walk on Water.

Christo’s newest project: Walking on Water:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/arts/design/christos-newest-project-walking-on-water.html

The Gates Documentary, Jim Hensen Pictures, 2007:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCqZJI1VyU

http://nyti.ms/1Yvo64m

#Christo #WalkonWater #TheGates