Bulgarian born Christo and his wife Jean-Claude have already gathered world fame through their ambitious projects of temporary art. To mention but a few: in 1982 they wrapped 11 islands in Miami into pink cotton; in 1991 they opened over three hundred umbrellas in Japan and California and in 1995 they packed the Reichstag in silver cloth.
Their latest project took place in the city of New York, lasting only for 16 days in February. The project called ‘The Gates’ was situated in Central Park and included 7532, 16-foot-high gates (steel-made constructions) with panels of saffron-coloured orange fabric. These were spread out over 23 miles of the park’s paths allowing all people passing by to see the modern art wonder of the two artists. The 21 million worth project was funded by its creators, who donated 3 million USD to the Central Park Conservancy. The artists also plan to recycle the materials, including 5,290 tons of steel, (which was estimated to have been about two-thirds the amount used to build the Paris Eiffel Tower).
It was not until recently that the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, announced that the piece of art has attracted over 4 million visitors to Central Park despite frigid February temperatures. The month is usually sluggish time for tourism in the city but The Gates had drawn an unprecedented 1.5 million out-of-towners, including 300 000 from overseas tourists. The project also gathered over 100 representatives of different cities all over the world (Peking, Budapest, Cairo, Jerusalem, London, Madrid, Rome, Tokyo and many more). Thus Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work of contemporary art turned out to have been the centre of New York’s February cultural life, creating at the same time a substantial profit for the town itself.
