Exclusive: Scale model found in Christo’s studio leads to London realisation of internally lit Package on a Ceiling
Christo once wrapped up the Reichstag, suspended a curtain across a Colorado valley and covered up the Pont Neuf in Paris. Now, six years after the artist’s death, a London gallery is to create a monumental installation he designed in 1968, using a detailed scale model and drawings that had been presumed lost until their chance discovery.
Christo had imagined a vast, internally illuminated suspended form, like a cloud, but technical constraints meant the plan was never brought to fruition.
Package on a Ceiling was conceived for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Now its first realisation will fill a huge exhibition space at Gagosian London in a collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
The piece will fill the full volume of the space – 16 metres long, 10 metres wide – descending to just above head height.
