CHRISTO (1935-2020) and Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009) photograph by Wolfgang Volz (B. 1948) Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1995

CHRISTO (1935-2020) and Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009) photograph by Wolfgang Volz (B. 1948) Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1995
color photograph mounted on dibond
signed ‘Christo, Jeanne-Claude, Wolfgang Volz’
numbered 9/25
100 x 120 cm
framed

«I think the three of us are very lucky that this symbiosis is successful. The photographer’s role in their work is clearly the mediator between temporary and eternal.»

This work is a photograph by Wolfgang Volz of an installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The exclusive relationship and unique symbiosis between Wolfgang Volz with Christo and Jeanne-Claude started in 1971 and lasted for over 35-years. Wolfgang Volz’s photographs feature various phases of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s productions and are an integral part of the duo’s projects. While Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects have temporal character, Wolfgang Volz’s photographs feature both a historic memoir and his present own interpretation and visual reconstruction.


The fragile fabric used for the installation translated the unique quality of impermanence, the distinctive feature of their oeuvre. Using 100,000 square meters of thick woven polypropylene fabric with an aluminium surface and 15,6 kilometres of blue polypropylene rope, Christo and Jeanne-Claude managed to realise the Wrapped Reichtag project on June 24, 1995. They had struggled 23 years to have the project approved and used their finance to pay for its realisation. The German historical monument remained wrapped for 14 days.

Containing many layers of history, the Reichstag is a symbol of Democracy and freedom: it was built in 1894 by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German emperor, burned in 1933, almost destroyed in 1945, and consequently, on April 30, 1945, two Red Army soldiers raised the red flag of the Soviet Union as a symbol of their victory over Nazi Germany. It was restored in the sixties.