Christo

American artist of Bulgarian origin, whose full name is Christo Javacheff. His wrapped objects are some of the most extreme examples of modern conceptual art. He lived in France between 1958 and 1964, the year he moved to the United States. His early works were empaquetages, in which he wrapped bottles, cans or boxes with fabric or plastic. He became very famous for his later works, which consisted of temporarily wrapping enormous objects or entire buildings. His largest work was Running Fence (1976), a nylon strip 5.5 meters high that extended for 40 kilometers across two counties in California. Both this work and the previous Valley Curtain (1972) were the subject of documentaries made by avant-garde film directors Albert and David Maysles. Other works include Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Florida (1982), eleven islands framed with 650,000 m2 of polypropylene fabric, The Pont Neuf Wrapped (Paris, 1985). In 1995 he wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin. Among his unrealized projects are the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid and the Columbus statue in Barcelona.