02/25/2024 – 5:57
On February 25, 1994, a controversy lasting several years came to an end. The majority of German deputies approve of conceptual artist Christo's plan to package the Reichstag building in Berlin. Visual artist Christo Javachef justified his project with the historical importance of the old building in Berlin:
“I was born in Bulgaria and fled to the West. I really wanted to bring this project to fruition because it represents the meeting between East and West. The only place in the world where this could happen, for architects, sculptors or artists, would be the metropolis of Berlin. And the only building that symbolizes the powers of bygone eras is the Reichstag. If I had been born in Nebraska, for example, I would have no reason to pack the Reichstag.”
Controversial project…
The artist's dream came true in 1995. A year earlier, exactly on February 25th, a controversial debate, followed by a roll call vote in the Bundestag, had approved the packaging.
The then president of the lower house of Parliament, Rita Süssmuth, recalls the critics' main arguments: “Some thought it would hurt the honor of Parliament, others said that the money could be better used in social programs”.
Jeanne-Claude, wife and businesswoman of the project's mentor, contests those who considered the Reichstag an anti-democratic symbol: “After all, at more than a hundred years old, it is one of the oldest democratic parliaments in Europe, alongside that of Switzerland. One should not think about the bad times he went through, or the wrong decisions made there, but rather about the good times.”
In its more than one hundred years of history, the Reichstag building was the seat of government in two wars promoted by Germany. The architecture itself is controversial. When he designed it, Paul Wallot stated that he wanted to clearly differentiate the building from Parliament, so that “it would not be confused with a railway station or a courthouse”.
Another controversial point surrounding the building is the inscription on its facade Dem Deutschen Volke – To the German People. The inscription was only engraved in 1916, after 24 years of controversy.
… it's old
Christo began working on the packaging project in 1961. The building's location, at the confluence between East and West, in the center of Europe, gave it a special significance after the end of the Cold War. Abandoned for 40 years, in the territory of former communist Germany, it seemed to awaken from a deep sleep in 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Transformation and movement were the central elements of Christo's work. From June 23 to July 6, 1995, thousands of people saw and photographed the building, wrapped in one hundred thousand square meters of a special aluminum fabric. Afterwards, the fabric was replaced by scaffolding for the complete renovation of the building, carried out by British architect Norman Foster.
After the transfer of the German government from Bonn to Berlin, the building was reopened on April 19, 1999 as the seat of the Bundestag.
#Christo #pack #Reichstag