Wrapped Reichstag

Wrapped Reichstag

Christo & Jeanne-Claude

Location : Berlin, Germany. Date of completion : 1995. Architect : Christo & Jeanne-Claude. Associates : Michael S Cullen, roland Specker, Wolfgang Volz, Sylvya Volz. Scheme : Wrapping of the Germani Parliament building. Photography : Wolfgang S Wewerka.

For 14 days, from 24 June to July 1995, the German Parliament in Berlin, the Reichstag, was wrapped in a metallic fabric, tied down on all sides as if it were parcel. Christo and Jean Claude had been pursuing this idea since 1971. Twenty-four years of work and perseverance, involving the public and many institutions in the project, permitted them to realize their ambition with this emblematic new work. A contract was signed between the city of Berlin, government authorities in Bonn, and the artists had to provide :

- Insurances for all the personel and property involved with the city of Berlin and the federal government;

- Complete and satisfactory removal of all the wraping material;

- Full cooperation with the Berlin community;

- Personel contracted from among the local inhabitants;

- Communication with and access to the daily activities of the Reichstag during the process of the work.

The work was entirely financed by the artists, as on other occasions, when projects have been paid for by the sale of drawings, preliminary studies, collages, etc, .. thus dispensing with the need for sponsors, and guaranteeing the indepedence of the work.

The artists used 10 ha (25 acres) of aluminized polypropyelene material and more than of 16 km (10 miles) of cord of the same material, in order that, for a number of days, they could hide the Reichstag, the true symbol of German democracy, from public view.

(adapted from The World of Contemporary Architecture XX)