THE DAY THE REICHSTAG WAS WRAPPED IN 100,000 M2 OF SILVER FABRIC

On 23 June 1995, Berlin’s Reichstag appeared to the public entirely wrapped in silver fabric: it had taken 90 climbers six days to secure 100,000 m2 of polypropylene onto 200,000 kg of scaffolding with 15.6 km of blue rope. The artists behind this spectacle were Christo and Jeanne-claude, who had spent 24 years making it happen. When they first mooted the idea, in 1971, the Reichstag stood empty: after the infamous 1933 fire, it had almost been destroyed in 1945 and then partially restored in the 1960s. Six Bundestag speakers went by until the German parliament finally approved the project on 25 February 1994. “We won!”, exclaimed Christo, later mischievously adding, “The main argument in our favour was the fact that we would fund the project ourselves, by selling our models and drawings, which is how we now pay for all our work. With all the engineers and consultants, they aren’t cheap. [Wrapping] the Reichstag cost $15.3 million, and that was 1995 money” ( The Guardian, February 2017). It may have taken 24 years, but it lasted just two weeks. In that time, five-million visitors came to see the wrapped Reichstag, and, predictably, the city of Berlin asked Jeanne-claude and Christo to prolong the spectacle in the hope that several million more would bring in their tourist dollars. But the artists refused: “We never let a work exist for more than two weeks. If you don’t see it, you don’t see it.” Between 7 and 10 July 1995, the silver wrapping and the steel scaffolding were dismantled, and their materials recycled.