Text : Christo & Jeanne-Claude website
L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, a temporary artwork for Paris, is on view for 16 days from Saturday, September 18 to Sunday, October 3, 2021. The project has been realized in partnership with the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and in coordination with the City of Paris. It also receives the support of the Centre Pompidou. The Arc de Triomphe is wrapped in 25,000 square meters of recyclable polypropylene fabric in silvery blue, and with 3,000 meters of red rope.
In 1961, three years after they met in Paris, Christo and Jeanne-Claude began creating works of art in public spaces. One of their projects was to wrap a public building. When he arrived in Paris, Christo rented a small room near the Arc de Triomphe and had been attracted by the monument ever since. In 1962, he made a photomontage of the Arc de Triomphe wrapped, seen from the Avenue Foch and, in 1988, a collage. 60 years later, the project will finally be concretized.
L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped is entirely funded by the Estate of Christo V. Javacheff, through the sale of Christo's preparatory studies, drawings, and collages of the project as well as scale models, works from the 1950s and 1960s, and original lithographs on other subjects. It receives no public funds.
The Centre des Monuments Nationaux, the government institution that manages the Arc de Triomphe, is pleased about the realization of a project that demonstrates its commitment to contemporary creation and that honors one of the most emblematic monuments in Paris and in France.
The Eternal Flame, in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, continued to burn throughout the installation, and it will continue to burn throughout display and dismantling of the artwork. As always, veterans' associations and volunteers committed to the values of the French Republic will ensure the continuity of remembrance and the daily ceremony of rekindling the flame that pays homage to the Unknown Soldier and those who lost their lives fighting for France.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always made clear that their artworks in progress be continued after their deaths. Per Christo's wishes, L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped has been realized by his team.
