The exhibition “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Prints and Objects 1963-2014” is on at the Sofia City Art Gallery from September 14^th to the 22^nd. This is the first exhibition by the world-famous artists in Bulgaria. The two are astral twins: they were born on the same day, 13 June 1935. He was born in Gabrovo to a family of industrialists, she was born in Casablanca to a family of army men; both are American citizens. In 2009 Jeanne-Claude passed away.

This is the first exhibition of works of theirs, here in Bulgaria. “When talking about them there is one word that invariably springs to mind – freedom,” says art critic Maria Vassileva. And describes Christo as a classic of modern art.

“He is the man who seems to have stretched our idea of freedom  to the limit, of upholding what we are doing,” she adds. “His place in art is connected with the 20^th and 21^st century notion of maximum freedom, good will and the prospect of doing things simply because that is what we want to do. Both Christo and Jeanne-Claude have often stated their work exists simply because they want it to exist, not because anyone else does or has commissioned the work. They have truly managed to preserve their creative freedom in a spectacular way, refusing all sponsorship, commercial relationships, and to my mind that is a unique thing. I don’t know of any other people like them in the history of modern art or art in general. This means upholding one’s positions and this is no whim or commercial gimmick. It is a sense of being absolutely free that is deeply rooted in them both. It is something that they have managed to sustain and this whole exhibition we are now showing is a demonstration of the reach of their dreams. They are fully  entitled to dream because they are free and it is a right they have earned.”

The exhibition features works by both artists, as well as photographs of their works by Wolfgang Volz. The earliest are from 1963 and the latest – from 2014. The most popular among them are the wrapped Reichstag and Pont Neuf, the umbrellas in Japan, the surrounded islands in Biscayne Bay, the gates in Central Park in New York, the running fence in California, the wall in Germany. There are other projects now in progress – the floating piers in Italy, the Mastaba project in the United Arab Emirates, over the river – Arkansas in Colorado. And this is but a small portion of their work. During the long years of their work together the two have put in place 22 projects; permission for 37 more has been denied them. But they continued their work.

“What is most important is the creative process,” says Maria Vassileva. “And what makes this exhibition so revealing is that it demonstrates the ongoing process, the way ideas are put down on paper and the long road they have to cover before they can be presented to the public, or not. The exhibition also features many projects that never came to light and no attempt was made that they should. But they are a very vivid illustration of the two artists’ creative minds – an incredible tandem, a tandem with a fine balance between coming up with an idea that takes them up to the conceptual level and then, making use of Christo’s skills as an artist to visualize this idea on paper.”

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the artists whose projects are probably the most widely discussed publicly. Because of the specifics of their work, through the years they have had to have meetings with politicians, environmentalists, journalists and the people whose land they have wanted to use for their projects. And in doing this, they have made a considerable contribution to the promotion of modern art and explaining it to the public.

The exhibition came as something of a surprise and was relatively easy to organize, with Christo covering a large part of the cost. Support was also given by Sofia municipality and the America for Bulgaria foundation. Though from a distance, the artist himself arranged the exhibition with fine precision.

“As a matter of fact the place of each work you can see hanging on the walls was selected by Christo himself, according to the gallery’s layout. It only remained for us to put them up. So, albeit from a distance he supervised the entire process. The very fact that he had drawn up precision sketches on a 1 to 4 scale of where each work should go, shows the kind of man he is and is indicative of his professionalism. He has no assistants, he never has and he says that as long as he is alive and well each one of his exhibitions is his personal responsibility and that he is duty-bound to do everything himself, from beginning to end. Very professional and modest as well – a very human approach to his work, to the way the projects and works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude are presented to the public.”

English version: Milena Daynova