{"id":8291,"date":"2020-06-11T10:54:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T08:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.listonegiordano.com\/camminare-sullacqua-christo-jeanne-claude-celant-e-larte-del-miracolo\/"},"modified":"2020-06-12T15:17:50","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T13:17:50","slug":"christo-jeanne-claude-celant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listonegiordano.com\/one\/en\/culture\/christo-jeanne-claude-celant\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking on water. Christo, Jeanne-Claude, Celant and the art of the miracle."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

XTO+J-C<\/em>, the most extraordinary biography ever written about Christo and Jeanne-Claude, has a beginning worthy of a novel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the coldest winter in Christo Javacheff\u2019s memory. On January 10, 1957, he and fifteen other hushed refugees stood shivering in an unheated freight car somewhere in Czechoslovakia, concealed with a shipment of medical supplies. A knifelike wind howled outside.<\/em> 1<\/a><\/sup>Burt Chernow, Wolfgang Volz, XTO+J-C. Christo e Jeanne-Claude, una biografia, <\/em>Skira \/ Fondazione Ambrosetti, Milan 2001 p.11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christo, The Floating Piers (Progetto) 2014 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An endless story, like that of thousands of people who, to this very day, find themselves fleeing from evil in search of a better life, for themselves and their loved ones. But for Christo<\/strong>, who at the time was fleeing from the incomprehension and rigor mortis<\/em> of a nation belonging to the post-Stalinist bloc, it was the prelude to a unique and unforgettable work or artistry, architecture, and landscape design, conceived and created entirely with his wife, Jeanne-Claude<\/strong> (Denat de Guillebon), who passed away several years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christo
Christo con la moglie Jeanne-Claude<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Christo
Christo and Jeanne-Claude Reichstag, Berlin 1995. Photo credits: Wolfgang Volz <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The story of Jeanne-Claude\u2019s life is also worthy of a novel, with a childhood as exotic as it was difficult.<\/strong> In fact, perhaps it was that nomadic lifestyle, among different families and places, that gave her the strength and tenacity to carry out projects that others wouldn\u2019t have even dared to undertake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As fate would have it, both were born on June 13, 1935<\/strong>, he in Gabrovo (Bulgaria) and she in Casablanca, and, after meeting in Paris, they never left each other\u2019s side: \u201cUntil death do you part.\u201d And it was unfortunately death that once again intertwined Christo\u2019s own destiny with that of another great name in contemporary art: Germano Celant<\/strong>, who passed away a month before Christo, and with whom Xto had revisited the long series of installations by Xto+JC in another book (The Water Projects<\/em>)2<\/a><\/sup> Germano Celant, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Water Projects<\/em>, Silvana Editoriale, Milan 2016<\/strong> <\/span>, which covers all their greatest projects on an urban and territorial scale, from 1961 to 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Germano
Germano Celant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

READ ALSO – Why is the awarding of the 2020 Pritzker Prize to two FEMALE architects \u2013 still make the headlines?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 60 years of work, culminating in the \u201cmiraculous\u201d Floating Piers<\/em> installation on Lake Iseo. Once again, half a century after having wrapped<\/em> two Milanese monuments (1970) and the Aurelian Walls in Rome (1974), Christo had returned to Italy, led by the apostle Germano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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