Photo Wolfgang Volz CHRISTO & Jeanne-Claude A MUSEO Interview By Pitchaya Sudbanthad and P.J. Haley   A silver fabric conceals the entirety of the Reichstag. Eleven islands in the waters of Biscayne Bay, Miami, are surrounded by 60 hectares of pink. Over three thousand umbrellas the size of houses dot valleys, in two different countries across the Pacific Ocean. These are the landscapes of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. To summarize their artistic lives is to recount a tale of ambition and vision. Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on the very same day in 1935. They were to later meet in Paris, after Christo escaped from the authoritarian rule of his native Bulgaria. Ever since then, they have collaborated on realizing their art, which has impacted and transformed common notions of space, or more rather, the experience of a space. Built in very public sites, projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude are seen by many people, people who are simply driving by, people walkingto work, as well as people who come to see the art projects for themselves. Each project require an incredible amount of planning andpreparation; it seems ironic that their works are erected for only a few days, and then are completely taken down. They create a quiet, gentle ripple in the everyday experience and then are off to another project, in tandem with their creative vitality. The Christos are currently dedicated to their works in progress, which range from The Gates in Centrall Park, to Wrapped Trees, a project in Switzerland and Over the River, a project for the Arkansas River in Colorado. We sat in their New York City studio one afternoon and talked about their lives and their art. We asked Christo to remember his early days studying art at the Academy in Sophia. Christo Art school in Bulgaria at that time, in the late 1940's and 50's was very conservative, very much in the mold and system of the university and art academy of the nineteenth century in Europe. Basically, you become a painter, a sculptor, or an architect in the same school, the Fine Art school. The first four years, you studied everything, you studied painting, sculpture, architecture, industrial design, then in the fourth year you specialize, you become a painter or sculptor or architect. I studied all these different disciplines.   Christo & Jeanne-Claude 5600 Cubic Meter Package, Kassel 1967-1968 Photo Klaus Baum [Christo remembers how he and other art students were sent by the Bulgarian government to work in the countryside. The Orient Express went through Bulgaria, and the government wanted to impress the travelers with the image of an agricultural utopia. It was in advising the farmers how to position their tractors and haystacks along the route that Christo felt the real, physical dimensions of a landscape, a valuable experience that will continue to shape his art.]   Christo & Jeanne-Claude The Umbrellas Japan-USA 1984-1991 Photo Wolfgang Volz   MUSEO When you look at a landscape, what makes a place perfect for a Christo and Jeanne-Claude work? Christo There are no rules. Jeanne-Claude It is different each time. The idea always comes from our own heart and head. That is why we do not do commissions or accept sponsorships. We do what we want, how we want, where we want, but not always when we want. It took us 24 years to get permission to wrap the Reichstag. We had to fight 10 years to wrap the bridge in Paris. The umbrella project in Japan and California took 6 years. Christo You have to understand that there is no recipe. It is generated by a very personal experience. The expression for the Reichstag is one thing, the expression for the umbrellas is another thing. They are all different. It is various circumstances. It is very precise.     MUSEO People traditionally associate the Reichstag with history. You've also worked on a projects at Roman walls and other monuments. Do history and politics play a role in your sites and your art? Jeanne-Claude Our works have elements which are social, political, environmental, and economical.Of the walks, the roads, and even the rivers, as in the Reichstag and the Pont Neuf. MUSEO That's one of the extraordinary featuresof your works. They are seen by so many people, people who might not usually walk into a gallery or a museum. In our recent times, information technology is becoming more accessible, as with the internet, and the notion of a public space is expanding to include virtual space. How do you see yourselves, as artists whose works are physical, at a time when public space is gaining a non-physical dimension?   Christo & Jeanne-Claude The Umbrellas Japan-USA 1984-1991 Photo Wolfgang Volz       Christo You have to understand that the public dimension is from the shear, exact situations that we use, the very public spaces or spaces owned by private citizens, the government, which is so many people. It is space used by the thousands and millions of people who go to that space in a short time, and we create a gentle disturbance in that space. We inherit everything that belongs to the space, it is not invented by us. You know, the political dimension of the Reichstag is not invented by us. There are photographs of the Wrapped Reichstag, There are preparation drawings for the Wrapped Reichstag. Those are about the Wrapped Reichstag, but that is not the project. The real project was not about the Reichstag, it was the Reichstag. A film by National Geographic about lions is not the real lions. Jeanne-Claude The film won't bite you. Christo When you see a film about storms, snow, and natural violence, there is no real fear, no real wetness, all that is make-believe. Jeanne-Claude There was a man who kept insisting us on doing something in Virtual Reality, and I asked him, ÒHave you ever really made love to the photograph of your girlfriend ? Christo Information can be by sound, by sight, but it is all only about information. We like to do our projects because we want to be a part of that life experience. What we do now, in a particular time of our lives, will never be the same as when we did the Valley Curtain project. Our emotions cannot be the same. This expedition of our life cannot be substitutedÉOur engineers wanted to do a virtual model of the Reichstag, and I told them that I will only pay for that if they can show how the wind will move the fabric. That movement is so unpredictable, and they could not do it. MUSEO Speaking of the Reichstag, the project took 24 years to be completed. Has there ever been a point in any of your projects that you became exhausted and frustrated by the difficulties of its realization? Christo No. Our projects have not only elements of painting, sculpture, but also architecture and urban planning. When you build a highway, it takes many years to plan and complete it. Our projects are the same. They involve the same physics, the same processes of regulations, the same complex logistics, which is why our projects are not entirely like a painting or a sculpture. Nobody discusses a painting or a sculpture before it is completed. But people talk about highways and buildings before it is completed, and our projects are the same. For example the Umbrellas were 20 feet tall and 29 feet wide. They were built very much like a two story house, but without walls. It was designed to create a settlement of houses without walls. We actually had the permits to build 1340 houses. MUSEO Our last question is for our readers. What's your advice to a young art student? Jeanne-Claude We always say the same thing. Anyone who's willing to work 17 hours a day, 7 days a week (our last vacation was 39 years ago), can do it if they know what they want. We do have one luxury, and that is our son, Cyril. Christo The most important thing is to work. We like to work independently, and we enjoy our freedom. Many artists work the gallery system, there is nothing wrong with that. Surviving is one thing, but the main thing is to know your priority. The most important thing is to desire, to explore. Christo & Jeanne-Claude Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, Colorado Pencil, charcoal and pastel crayon 1992