CHRISTO 1935 (Bulgaria) - 2020 (USA)
JEANNE-CLAUDE 1935 (Morocco) - 2009 (USA)
Born in Bulgaria, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff arrives in Paris in 1958. There, he meets and marries Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon : they decid to work together.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude joins the Nouveaux-Réalistes – New Realists– in 1963.
They settle in New-York and in 1964 the became american people. Their artistical activity consists in packing, wrapping objects and monuments : the symbol of taking of posession of the space and the ephemeral becomes in itself an aesthetic dimension.
These artists consider that they give “a new sculptural dimension” to the monuments they have packed, wrapped, cut or colored. They want the spectator to play a role within the the “creation” of the work ; seing the new perspective created by the installation, he contributes to give a new meaning to the place he sees.
The works of art by Christo and Jeanne-Claude are signed “Christo” until 1994. Then, the name of Jeanne-Claude appears too.
“Our projects are in situ works of art, they are not portable objects. Usually, a normal sculpture, classical or modern, has its own physical space. In a way, this space belong to the sculpture as it has been prepared to host it. Our projetcs touch a larger sensitivity, because they appropriate or borrow spaces that usually are not prepared to host sculpture.”
Wrapped monuments : Contemporary Art Museum of Chicago (1969) – Sculpture of Leonard de Vinci, Piazza Scala, Milano (1970) – Pont-Neuf, Paris (1985) – Reichstag, Berlin (1995)…
Jeanne-Claude died, aged 74, on November 18, 2009.
