Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap the Reichstag
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2019
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In June 1995 artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin in fabric.
The former German parliament building sat on the border between East and West Berlin. It had been gutted by fire in 1933 and extensively damaged during the Second World War.
The monumental public art project was seen by more than five million people and became a symbol for Berlin’s renewal after the fall of the Wall and the collapse of communism.
Christo talks about the motivation behind the project and explains how they made it happen.
Picture: view of west and south facades of Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin 1971-1995 by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Photo by Wolfgang Volz, copyright Christo.
Transcript
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| 0:26.4 | auction. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.7 | Hi and thanks for downloading Witness History with me Lucy Burns from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:34.7 | Today we're going back to the summer of 1995 and a monumental work of art for an audience of millions |
| 0:41.0 | when artists, Christo and Jean-Claude wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin in fabric. |
| 0:47.0 | It's an eccentric dream but one that a husband and wife team have cherished for nearly a quarter of a century. |
| 0:52.4 | And this weekend the Bulgarian-born artist |
| 0:54.2 | Christo and his wife Jean Cload began wrapping the German Parliament building in |
| 0:59.0 | silver fabric. It is very difficult to explain if you not see it. |
| 1:03.0 | No drawings, no sketch, you know scale model can match the complexity of the project. |
| 1:08.8 | This is Christo. |
| 1:09.8 | Today he's one of the biggest conceptual artists in the world. He spoke to me from his studio in New York. |
| 1:15.6 | Every project I do myself, the links of something very personal. |
| 1:21.0 | You know I was born in Bulgaria, 1935, highly Sovietic communist country. |
| 1:27.0 | As a young art student in the early 1950s, he worked for the Bulgarian government on a project to beautify the countryside along the route of the Orient Express train. |
| 1:36.0 | He told the BBC about it in 1977. |
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