L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped – from Christo’s vision to reality

Like so many things, the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe was postponed by a year due to the Corona pandemic. Originally scheduled for autumn 2020, Christo announced via his social media channels in April 2020 that his team would not realize the labor-intensive art installation until next year. A few weeks after the announcement, Christo passed away shortly before his 85th birthday in May 2020. Unfortunately, this means he was unable to see the realization of his mega-project. Despite his death, plans to wrap the Arc de Triomphe went ahead. This was in accordance with Christo’s wishes, according to a statement published by his team on his Facebook page.

Christo and one of his many preparatory drawings of the Arc de Triomphe (Photo: Wolfgang Volz/Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation 2019)

This is because the project has been in the making for several years. The timeline goes back to 1961. After Christo, whose real name was Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, met his wife Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon in Paris, the two began creating public art together. One of these projects was to wrap a public building. During this first creative phase in Paris, Christo lived in a room near the Arc de Triomphe. And the building fascinated him from that point on. Christo created the first photomontage showing a wrapped Arc de Triomphe as early as 1962, and since then has continued to create new collages and sketches of the project. Today, almost 60 years later, his vision has become reality.

With the permission of Emmanuel Macron

The trigger for this was the exhibition “Christo et Jeanne-Claude, Paris!”, which was to open at the Centre Pompidou in 2020. In 2017, in the midst of preparations for the exhibition, Christo, together with the president of the Centre Pompidou, Serge Lasvignes, and its director, Bernard Blistène, discussed realizing a parallel project. Christo decided to revive his vision for the Arc de Triomphe. A year later, the president of the Centre des monuments nationaux (the institution that manages the Arc de Triomphe), Philippe Bélaval, presented the project to French President Emmanuel Macron. A few months later, in January 2019, Macron and the Centre des monuments nationaux give their approval. The project could finally go into planning.

Et voilà: L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped.

Christo brought virtually exclusively German expertise on board for this. The Berlin office Schlaich Bergermann Partner prepared the technical studies for the project. Wacker Ingenieure from Birkenfeld were responsible for the wind tunnel tests. And the German company Setex Textil wove the fabric, after which ROWO Coating in Herbholzheim coated it with paint. Finally, the company Geo – Die Luftwerker sewed the fabric together into long panels. On top of that, another German company – Gleistein – produced the red ropes that fix the fabric panels to the Arc de Triomphe.

A German company sewed together the fabric panels for the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe. (Photo: Wolfgang Volz/Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation 2020)

In addition to technical studies and wind tunnel tests, Christo and his team had to consider many other safety aspects. As a result, the wrapping did not take place in spring, as initially planned, but in autumn. In this way, Christo’s team complied with the request of the State Society for the Protection of Birds to protect the breeding season of the kestrels that live in the Arc de Triomphe. Steel cages around the sculptures on the pillars of the Arc de Triomphe ensure that they are not damaged by the tons of fabric. Similar constructions also keep the cornice and ornaments from being damaged.

Numerous fitters rolled the fabric panels around the Arc de Triomphe and fastened them with red rope. (Photo: Benjamin Loyseau/Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation 2021)