A little known work by Christo will be a highlight of this year’s BRAFA, which opens in Brussels tomorrow. Three Store Fronts is one of series of works created in the 1960s, inspired by shop fronts in Paris and New York. Made from architectural scrap and hung with drapes, it first went on show at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 1965, and kick-started Christo’s career. Compared to the monumental and ambitious projects that have defined the artist’s career ever since, it is surprisingly modest.
‘I was very happy when BRAFA asked me to show this work; it has only ever been exhibited twice, and so few people have seen it,’ says Christo from his studio in New York’s Canal Street, where he has lived for the past 53 years. Like Show Cases and Store Fronts (additional works from the same period), it has been in his storage facility for years. ‘I am the biggest collector of my works,’ he says. ‘I use them as collateral to fund my large projects.’
Installation view of Three Store Fronts, 1965-66, by Christo at BRAFA, Brussels. © A2pix / F Blaise, E Charneux
Over the decades, these have included creating a walkway across an Italian lake, (Floating Piers, 2016), hanging a curtain between two Colorado mountain slopes (Valley Curtain, 1972), installing 7,503 fabric panels in New York’s Central Park (The Gates, 2003) and perhaps, most famously, wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin in a silvery fabric (Wrapped Reichstag, 1995). So successful has the 82-year-old artist been at injecting buildings and landscapes with dramatic aesthetic interventions, each project drawing millions of visitors, that Christo is one of the world’s most celebrated living artists.
‘The most important, and difficult, part of any project is getting permissions. I’ve had more failures than successes; 23 projects have been realised, 37 turned down.’ His next work, The Mastaba, is a flat-topped pyramid made from barrels in the Abu Dhabi desert. It has been in the pipeline for 40 years.
‘In 1979 (my late wife) Jeanne-Claude and I went to Abu Dhabi, which was still a new country. We didn’t even know where it was! We found a site, which is in the middle of the Empty Quarter, populated by high dunes and white gazelles.’ Stretching to 150m high and 225m deep, The Mastaba will be the world’s largest sculpture and take three years to build.
‘We never know how to do a project when we start; we have to experience real winds, real water, real sunlight. These can’t be mimicked by computer,’ says Christo, who is still negotiating permissions. Will it happen? ‘I am not giving up,’ he claims, ‘but everything is more difficult now. The world is a different place.’
Installation view of Three Store Fronts,1965-66, by Christo at BRAFA, Brussels. © A2pix / F Blaise, E Charneux
INFORMATION
BRAFA runs from 26 January – 4 February. For more information, visit the BRAFA website and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude website
ADDRESS
Tour & Taxis
Avenue du Port 86C
1000 Brussels
-
Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV conceptThe AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
-
Inside Izza Marrakech: A new riad where art and bohemian luxury meetHonouring the late Bill Willis’ hedonistic style, Izza Marrakech fuses traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with the best of contemporary art
-
Clocking on: the bedside analogue timepieces that won’t alarm your aestheticWe track down the only tick-tocks that matter, nine traditional alarm clocks that tell the time with minimum fuss and maximum visual impact
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s ParkTwenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
-
Artist Emmanuelle Castellan’s textural takeover in BrusselsLa Verrière gallery in Brussels and Fondation d’entreprise Hermès present ‘Spektrum’, infused with colour and texture by the works of Emmanuelle Castellan
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhoodTschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
-
Wanås Konst sculpture park merges art and nature in SwedenWanås Konst’s latest exhibition, 'The Ocean in the Forest', unites land and sea with watery-inspired art in the park’s woodland setting
-
Pino Pascali’s brief and brilliant life celebrated at Fondazione PradaMilan’s Fondazione Prada honours Italian artist Pino Pascali, dedicating four of its expansive main show spaces to an exhibition of his work
-
The ageing female body and the cult of youth: Joan Semmel in BelgiumJoan Semmel’s ‘An Other View’ is currently on show at Xavier Hufkens, Belgium, reimagining the female nude
-
John Cage’s ‘now moments’ inspire Lismore Castle Arts’ group showLismore Castle Arts’ ‘Each now, is the time, the space’ takes its title from John Cage, and sees four artists embrace the moment through sculpture and found objects
