Twenty-one years ago, a different spectacle unfolded for bleary-eyed international civil servants, provided they strayed from their cubicles into Central Park. Before you go on, turn the volume up and click the button for the hymn of all UNICEF officials.
The Gates were an installation by Bulgarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude, known jointly as Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The exhibition ran from February 12 through February 27, 2005.
The artists installed 7,503 steel "gates" along 37 km of pathways in Central Park. Close to 100,000 square metres of deep saffron-colored nylon fabric were used.
More than 100 teams of eight workers, all wearing grey uniform smocks, erected the gates. No holes were drilled and no permanent changes were made to the park. All workers were financially compensated and received breakfast and one hot meal a day.
Saffron or orange? - was not the only controversy surrounding the project.
The gates were 4.87 meters tall and varied in width from 1.68 to 5.48 meters. According to Wikipedia, project staff distributed free 2.75" square souvenir swatches of the orange fabric to passers-by, in part intended to discourage vandalism. The swatches remain highly collectible and trade on eBay for about $10 each. We weren't offered any fabric.
We were there first before the snowfall and then returned to see it again in the snow. The images are in reverse order, to get you confused.
All costs were borne by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Central Park was left as it was before the installation. Nothing had changed.
Click here for the website of Christo and Jean-Claude, where you find a high resolution of the image above, and more information about the project.
Fabric-Art-Star Christo already worked his magic in our little town of Monschau/Germany - in 1971. We suspect that the Gates were only an afterthought, more than 50 years after the impactful and transformative wrapping of a ruined tower of Monschau Castle.
Image (from 1971) courtesy Karl-Heinz Melters
More Insights from Outside the Bubble, by Detlef Palm
Write to Detlef at detlefpalm55@gmail.com
Cool I remember the orange flag gates
ReplyDeleteGreat photos Detlef. I remember that event well and I am one of the visitors who received a square swatch of the orange fabric.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the refreshing story and photos of this extraordinary exhibition at the Central Park. I'm one of the visitors at that time. Sorry that I missed that orange fabric swatch mentioned by Myra.
ReplyDeleteHi Detlef,
ReplyDeleteSo uplifting and positive in these difficult times. I remember the exhibition as well as David Bowie !
Excellent !,
Alles Gute
Liselotte
Aah Detlef: Given the exisential challenges now faced by the UN system, I have largely stopped participating in the collective hand wringing and breast beating by ex UNICEF wallahs. EX UN folks should now be lobbying in their countries at the Political level to ensure that both at the GA and the other statutory bodies, there is support for keeing a viable UN system in place -- this needs commitments for resources and for the over riding need to retain and infact strenghten the global systems. Time for middle powers and regional actors to reshape the New World Order...Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria (?) Algeria, India, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Brauzil. Mexico, Chile, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Peru, Columbia, etc....Anyway tried to connect with the UNICEF national committee, but they are very UNICEF focused and not really interested in what Old Farts have to say. Given the dysfunctions of the UN lobbying agency by agency is the way to irrelevance. for those of us who believe in multilateralism as the way to manage the global commons, also know that its not just the US, Russia and the PRC that game and trip the UN, many other actors, down to warlords and local dictators now know that they can cock a snook at the UN sans reproach. In the meantime the world hands us the work they do not want. Cannot for the life of me make sense of why the horrors of the Sudan ( regional actors deeply involved) has garnered so little attention -- guess social media influencers are not interested. Anyway, in Don Quixote mode, already tilting at the Xi windmill about Tibet ( for which we were sanctioned with Uyghyr colleagues and Human Rights defenders by the PRC) so happy to tilt for the support for multilateralism. The US antipathy to the UN is long seated, I sensed that in my first posting in Myanmar 1981 and it was in some measure played out in many duty stations -- collective action and collective support is not just their thing. Control. So like many things Trump and his ilk have just collected what existed and turbo charged it...happily, I am still doing my traditional archery and still horse riding regularly -- channeling my ancestors. 6 years ago an HR person suggested that I would not be able to withstand the rigors of working a a volunteer in difficult circumstances -- I asked her if she had ever ridden a horse or swum a kilometre!! If you ever in Canada, let me know, will cook u a Indo-Tibetan meal with Canadian wine and Beer...Meanwhile from sunny Mexico, Zihuatanejo to be precise...Greetings...
ReplyDeleteAh yes, from saffron-colored gates to tilting at Xi’s windmills via traditional archery. Not quite the scenic route, but an impressive one nonetheless.
DeleteYou’re probably right: less breast-beating, more lobbying; fewer elegies for multilateralism, more actual middle powers stepping up. I do admire the UN, but like Christo’s Gates, it manages to leave absolutely no trace on the landscape while consuming vast quantities of fabric, labour, and goodwill.
It is also comforting to know that while the New World Order is being reshaped (possibly by Indonesia, possibly by Peru, possibly by Finland), at least someone is still horse-riding, archery-shooting, and cooking Indo-Tibetan food with Canadian beer. Civilisation endures.
If nothing else, this comment proves one thing: the UN may be dysfunctional, but its alumni remain gloriously overqualified, stubbornly idealistic, and entirely unwilling to go quietly into retirement. Which, in its own way, is rather uplifting.