The Arc de Triomphe Wrapped in Fabric

Decades in the making.

POSTED BY SAGE O'CONNOR

The Arc de Triomphe, famed Paris landmarked, has been concealed with 270,000 square feet of silver-blue polypropylene fabric and red ropes in an extravagant display. 

Draping the Arc de Triomphe was a vision of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who are known for their bold and fleeting fabric installations worldwide. Their large-scale pieces involved wrapping landmarks or creating structures from colorful barrels. This most recent project was completed on September 16, 2021, more than a decade after Jeanne-Claude’s death and just over a year since Christo passed last May. 

This installation began this summer with a base of 400 tons of steel beams placed around the structure; these were then wrapped in the cloth by a team of climbers. The landmark will remain wrapped for 16 days and as reported by CNN “is poised to be a fleeting, sublime encounter with an environmental artwork that interrupts the experience of the everyday”. 

Other key installations from Christo and Jeanne-Claude include Wrapped Coast Australia 1969, Valley Curtain Colorado 1972, and more recently the London Mastaba 2018.

UP NEXT ON THE HITLIST
Ok