Christo at the Fondazione Cosso
Not For Sale
This exhibition dedicated to Christo (Ga- brovo, Bulgaria, 1935 - New York, 2020) and Jeanne-Claude (Casablanca, 1935 - New York, 2009), and Land Art, in the halls of Miradolo Castle, in the country- side south of Turin - with its beautiful park, an ideal and particularly suitable place for the theme of earth art - exhib- its around 60 works: projects, maquettes, mixed techniques, photos and some im- portant videos. There are also works by Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Dennis Op- penheim, Giuseppe Penone, and by Rob- ert Smithson and Michel Heizer, through historical photos by Gianfranco Gorgoni. And of the authors of the Nouveau rèal- isme (Arman, Rotella, Klein, Spoerri). The exhibition, with the general co- ordination of Paola Eynard, was cre- ated in close collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Founda- tion of New York, and curated by Franc- esco Poli and Paolo Repetto, with the help of Roberto Galimberti for the video and music section . This is an extractt part of the text in the catalog by Pao- lo Repetto. www.fondazionecosso.com The great and ambitious works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, their installations, their projects, partly inspired by that brilliant work of 1920 by Man Ray, The Enigme of Isodore Ducasse – first packing with a blanket and a string of any object (in this case a sewing machine) that the history of art remembers – above all they teach us to re-learn to see, they urge to re-discover, to have new eyes. In ancient Greek one of the most important words is admirable, being worthy of wonder, being able to be admired. The philosopher, the one who loves and seeks wisdom (sophia), is above all a man who marvels, a person who experiences amazement (thauma, thaumazein) also as fear, vertigo, bewil- derment. And to look, to observe, means to understand. It is nice to consider that even today, in English, I understand is also expressed with I see (I see). The vast in- stallations and varied projects of Christo and Jeanne-Claude – from the Air Pack- aging of Documenta in Kassel (1968) to the Mastaba (to be completed), from Val- ley Curtain (1970/72) to The floating Piers on the lake Iseo (2016), from Surrounded Island (1980/83) to Over the river (to be completed), from The Umbrellas (1984/91) to The gates (2004/05) from Running fence (1976) to Pont Neuf (1985) to the Reichstag (1995) – were conceived above all with the intention of hiding, completely or partially, or of varying and decorating a place, a vast space, in order to really make people see, make them understand again. The fundamental task of being able to see, of re-learning to observe. Against the dangerous flattening of habit, of lazi- ness, of the obvious and obvious gesture, making art as a recovery of amazement, of the ability to marvel. Temporarily hide to truly show; change for a short time a place, a valley, a space, a monu- ment, to bring its presence, charm and importance back into focus. Art as rev- elation: something that re-veals itself, that appears and disappears, that tem- porarily hides and then reappears with greater force. Covering a bridge, a fa- mous monument, a part of the coast with large sheets, to give them back their clear evidence. Temporarily modifying places and spaces in a game that is both monumental and lyrical, grandiose and ephemeral. “Is art immortal? Can art last forever? Will objects made of gold, sil- ver and precious stones be remembered forever? It is a form of naivety and arro- gance to believe that these things remain forever, for eternity. It probably takes more courage to go on than to stay. All these projects have a strong dimension of lack, of self-cancellation, which will always continue, like our childhood, our life. They create tremendous intensity when they last for a few days.” (Christo) The highest point of the meeting be- tween the horizontal line of beauty and the vertical line of originality, gives life to great art, always, in all times. If a work is only beautiful, it often belongs to the vast sea of good craftsmanship, which history will soon swallow up in a simple affective, domestic, family dimension; if a work is only original, experimental, provocative, without the magical aura of beauty, it too will soon be forgotten in the twisted dump of “we tried”. And our well-being, alas, in the face of a lot of free time, has produced too many aspir- ing and pseudo artists... I think one thing is objectively true: the great historical acceleration produced starting from the avant-gardes of the early twentieth cen- tury, then expanding exponentially with the extraordinary technological achievements linked to the enormous industri- alization of the second half of the 20th century, it has brought above all clas- sical music and partly also art, to ex- perimentation and a sometimes exces- sive cerebrality. And, due to an objective lowering of receptive and concentration capacities - produced by the extraor- dinary speed and ease of telecracy and the internet - contemporary classical music, like poetry after all, has a mini- mal and increasingly small audience. In reality, in this general disaster - in this sad flattening of taste, which has at- rophied into an apathetic and uncritical passive reception, which has produced a horrendous mismatch of values, where mediocre artists are considered geni- uses, and the very rare geniuses are not considered at all - modern and contem- porary art is saved: on the one hand be- cause visual memory is much simpler, stronger and more immediate – than au- ditory memory; on the other hand, since, under the good star of the “safe haven”, contemporary art has also become a significant segment of international fi- nance. But, in the face of all this, it’s nice to think that the works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, very original and very beautiful, both concrete and conceptual, are works that last for a few weeks. And of these remain only the projects, the maquettes, the preparatory studies: col- lages, mixed techniques: drawing, pas- tel, photography, sometimes painting. In reality, therefore, Christo’s works are ephemeral, short, alive and present, nor- mally, only for a short time. A concept, an idea is combined with a shape, a struc- ture, a place, hiding or changing it, only for a limited number of days. Presence, modified reality, for better or for worse, must soon return to its normality. Thus the true work of art is a project, a hy- pothesis, not constant and not definitive. Have you ever seen such an intentional- ly short and temporary work? A work of art that lasts very little over time. In this sense, Christo’s work seems to overturn the oldest and most profound reason for making art: to produce a beautiful and original form that can challenge our in- exorable decline, our mortal being. An idea remains, a mental project, inex- haustible and immortal in its concrete abstraction. An appearing to disappear, a being there and not being there, some- thing that more than any other represents and bears witness to our tragic reality. Proust said that the real journey of dis- covery does not consist in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Hid- ing or temporarily changing a place, a space, to give new light, new life and vi- sion to what seemed obvious. Covering a monument, a shape, a presence for a short period of time, to then be able to savor it again. The highest etymology of an eminently religious word is revela- tion: re-veiling: removing and putting on a veil, a diaphragm, a covering. There is no doubt that the two main parameters that qualify a work of art and its histori- cal importance are beauty and original- ity. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are great in beauty and generous in originality.