In the autumn of 2020, Christo will wrap the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
in silvery fabric for 16 days, returning to his signature style - after
realising The Floating Piers in Italy, the London Mastaba,
and a quarter of a century after he and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the
Reichstag building in Berlin. As a prelude, a major exhibition at
PalaisPopulaire in the German capital will celebrate this 25-year
anniversary in the spring of 2020. At the same time, the Pompidou Center
will pay tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude by staging The Pont Neuf Wrapped Documentary exhibition as well as a comprehensive show highlighting their early years in Paris.To
accompany these events, Matthias Koddenberg, art historian and
long-time friend of both Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, who was the
other half of the artistic duo until her death in 2009, has edited an
elaborate collection of interviews. The book is composed of many
conversations held between Koddenberg and Christo in the artist's New
York studio over the last few years.


With rare frankness, Christo
describes how he fled from Bulgaria and made his way into the Western
world. He talks about his time in Vienna and Geneva, his vibrant life in
Paris that was full of hardship, and the fateful moment when he met
Jeanne-Claude.


This publication provides an exceptional inside
view, uniting texts and numerous archival images and photographs, many
of which have never been published before, or depict early works by
Christo that have only recently been rediscovered.