If a press release on this came into our office at prairie dog, I must have been asleep at the switch, because I don’t remember encountering it. I’ll go looking for confirmation tomorrow, but could it be that Bulgarian-born, American-based artist Christo, famous for such projects as wrapping the Pont-Neuf Bridge in Paris in 40,000 sq. metres of fabric (1985) and the Reichstag in Berlin in 100,000 sq. metres of fabric (1995), is in town to do yet another of his provocative projects?
While Christo has always maintained that his “wrappings” are meant to function purely on an aesthetic level, critics have suggested that by the very act of concealing he reveals much. As for what he reveals, well, that’s up to the viewer to determine. But in the case of the Reichstag, it was a fire at the former seat of German democracy in 1933 that gave the Nazis the pretext they needed to suspend rights granted Germans under the 1919 Weimar Republic Constitution and institute a totalitarian regime. So that work could be read as a symbolic representation of how those rights were erased by Hitler and his followers.
Anyway, I first twigged on to the possibility that Christo was in town when I was by the Court of Queen’s Bench at Victoria Ave. and Smith St. today and was greeted by the sight pictured below. Again, I’ll be seeking confirmation of Christo’s presence in town tomorrow. But for now, here’s two shots of the “wrapped” court house to pique your curiosity:
