Sofia City Art Gallery
Presents Christo and Jean-Claude. Life = Works = Projects
Photographer: Wolfgang Volz
September 8 – November 7, 2021
Opening – September 8, Wednesday, 6:00 p.m.
“Christo and Jean-Claude. Life = Works = Projects ”is the name of the retrospective exhibition of photographs by Wolfgang Volz and curator Matthias Codenberg, which will open at the Sofia City Art Gallery on September 8. Until November 7, we will have the opportunity to see some of the most famous projects of Christo and Jean-Claude, as well as unique shots that capture moments in their lives. Catalog, film screenings, lectures and tours with the curators will accompany the exhibition.
Christo and Jean-Claude have managed to realize 24 projects during their more than fifty years of creative career. These are projects that change the world for a moment. It is as if time stops and together with the artists we can move into a familiar, but also different, more beautiful reality.
During these decades, the presentation of their art in Bulgaria was very fragmentary and sporadic, if at all. Only in 2015 with the direct participation of Christo and with the assistance of his team, in the person of Vladimir Yavashev, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the artist at the Sofia City Art Gallery was presented the exhibition Christo and Jean-Claude: graphics and objects from 1963 to 2014 This was the first major exhibition of the two artists in Bulgaria, and the collection was compiled personally by Christo. Visitors had the opportunity to meet over 130 original, numbered prints and circulations of Christo and Jean-Claude, as well as photographs of their works by Wolfgang Volz.
The exhibition Christo and Jean-Claude. Life = Works = Projects, on the one hand, gives us the opportunity to meet again with the various projects of artists over the decades, and on the other hand, to enter the studio, where the creative process of creation takes place: to see meetings with politicians and citizens; to feel the ideas and the inspiration; the enormous energy and labor invested; patience and perseverance to bring these creative visions to fruition.
In 2020, Christo left this world shortly before his 85th birthday. The last project his team will complete is the Packed Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The idea dates back to 1961 and came true in 2021. In 60 years, another of Christo’s dreams will come true and everyone will be able to see it, albeit briefly – 16 days from September 18 to October 3. A project that we can still experience on the spot, even without its author.
This living object, marking the end of Christo’s journey and completed in honor of the world’s artistic tandem, inspired us to prepare this exhibition with photographs of Wolfgang Volz – the artist who became an integral part of the work of Christo and Jean-Claude.
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