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New York prepares to accept the 'Gates' of Christo and Jeanne-Claude
NEW YORK (AFP) - Work is on track in Central Park to prepare for the installation of "Gates," the latest project of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who, for two weeks, will cover the famous New York park with a blanket of saffron fabric.
The installation will offer New York the most gigantic work of art the city has ever seen.
With less than one month to go before the February 12-27 deployment of the sculpture, its lines are already marked with heavy steel bases intended to receive the 7,500 fabric gates which will curve along 37 kilometers of paths and create gold castings in the park.
For the moment, the park area resembles a worksite, with orange panels temporarily planted on each base.
Little by little the vinyl saffron posts will be assembled in coming days, then the fabrics will be hung to five meters in height. Early on the morning of February 12, 600 workers supervised by Christo will come to unroll the large saffron nylon panels.
The project is massive -- it is 23 miles long, 16 feet high and uses 1,089,882 square feet (101,250 square meters) of fabric and 4,799 tonnes of steel, about two-thirds of the steel in the Eiffel Tower.
For Christo and Jeanne-Claude, creators of famous installations around the Pont-Neuf of Paris (1985) or the Reichstag in Berlin (1995), this 19th project has a particular resonance.
"We are very happy to finally have a project in our city, where we have lived for 41 years, at the same address," Jeanne-Claude told AFP.
For her, the "Gates" are a "work of joy and beauty," "without another reason to be other than a work of art," with the colors intended to emphasize the park and the rectangular structures pointing out the geometry of the city.
Christo, an American from Bulgaria, and Jeanne-Claude, a Parisian born in Casablanca, were both born on June 13, 1935.
They have worked and lived together since they met in Paris in 1958. Arriving in New York in 1964, they wanted this year to wrap skyscrapers, then museums such as the Whitney or the Museum of Modern Art, in their fabric installations, but were unable to do so.
The "Gates" are themselves the result of 26 years of preparations, developments, meetings, and hopes often disappointed, such as when in 1981 the city government refused a license to proceed.
"One day a miracle arrived: a man, an old friend and a large fan of our projects, Michael Bloomberg, was elected mayor of New York. He loves and knows what is good for his city," said Jeanne-Claude.
Visitors from all over the world are expected to view the installation, and like all passers-by, will receive remembrances from a million samples of saffron distributed at the site.
Not everyone is happy with the project however.
The New York branch of the Sierra Club (news - web sites) environmental group worries about the effect the project will have on the 7,000 birds in the park and demanded without success that the city conduct an environmental impact study.
The city, for its part, hopes the artwork will generate some 80 million dollars in additional tourist revenue on a project that will not cost a dime.
The entire cost of between 20 million and 21 million dollars is being financed entirely by its creators, including safety and cleaning.
The artists are raising the money through the sale of preparatory drawings by Christo and of sketches of prior projects, such as the installation at the Pont-Neuf, the "Surrounded Islands" (Miami, 1983) or the "Valley Curtains" (Colorado, 1972).
"We'll sell all that we have, except our son," Jeanne-Claude said.
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