14/3/2013
Christo
Gasometer, Oberhausen
With a height of 90 meters, Christo's latest work "Big Air Package" is the largest self-supporting sculpture in the world. An exhibition at the lowest level in the Gasometer will show a selection of the most important projects realised by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the most varied places throughout the world over the past five decades.
18 years after the wrapping of the Reichstag and 14 years after the installation “The Wall“ as the finale of the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition, Christo is returning to Germany with a further extraordinary art project. In 2013 the internationally acclaimed artist – for the first time without his wife Jeanne-Claude – will fill the Oberhausen Gasometer with his Big Air Package.
The “Big Air Package – Project for Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany“ was conceived by Christo in 2010 and will be on show from 16th March until 30th December 2013. The sculpture will be set up in the interior of the industrial monument and be made of 20,350 square metres of translucent fabric and 4,500 metres of rope. In the inflated state, the envelope, with a weight of 5.3 tons, reaches a height of more than 90 metres, a diameter of 50 metres and a volume of 177,000 cubic metres. The Big Air Package extends almost from wall to wall of the former gas holder and leaves merely the narrow surrounding passageway free from which the sculpture can be viewed from all sides. Moreover, air locks enable the visitors to experience the monumental work of art from the inside. Two fans generate a constant air pressure of 20 pascal (0.2 millibar) and keep the work of art upright.
The Big Air Package will thus be the largest inflatable envelope ever created that manages without a skeleton. Illuminated by the Gasometer’s skylights, it produces a diffuse atmosphere of light in its interior. Here, in the middle of the Big Air Package, a unique experience of space, proportion and shape is provided.
The Big Air Package sculpture will be accompanied by an exhibition at the lowest level in the Gasometer. It will show a selection of the most important projects realised by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the most varied places throughout the world over the past five decades. Large-format photographs, films and designs will provide reminders of fascinating art events which, however, were always only for a limited period. The large-format photographs by Wolfgang Volz allow the projects to appear in their beauty and with their visionary force and make it possible to see what links the works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
In the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Christo and Jeanne-Claude already caused a stir with an installation in 1999. They built “The Wall“ with 13,000 oil drums. This was a 26 metre (85 feet) high wall which spanned the entire width of the industrial monument. The work of art was one of the highlights of the final presentation of the International Building Exhibition, Emscher Park, comprising the conversion of the industrial core of the Ruhr. “The Wall” was stringent and geometrical like the material and its surroundings – but also playful, creative and colourful.
The project management for the Big Air Package rests with Wolfgang Volz who has already helped numerous Christo projects to become reality. The curator of the exhibition of works is Peter Pachnicke.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with photographs by Wolfgang Volz and a text by Matthias Koddenberg.
During the period of the exhibition, seven original design drawings of the Big Air Package will be on display in the cabinet of the LUDWIGGALERIE in Schloss Oberhausen. These predominantly large-format works provided the model for the Big Air Package. They were produced in Christo‘s New York studio and show the development of the idea during the years 2010 up to its implementation in 2013. The LUDWIGGALERIE in Schloss Oberhausen can be reached easily at a short walking distance from the Oberhausen Gasometer.
Press contact:
Thomas Machoczek Tel. +49 0208.850 37 35 presse@gasometer.de
Opening on Friday 15th March 2013
Gasometer Oberhausen
Arenastr. 11, 46047 Oberhausen
Opening times: Tuesday- Sunday 10 am- 6 pm
Admission:
Adults: 9 Euros, reduced: 6 Euros
Schoolchildren in class group: 3.50 Euros
Family ticket (2 adults and a maximum of 5 children up to 17 years of age): 20 Euros
Season Ticket: 25 Euros