Christo’s first large-scale public sculpture in the UK will float on The Serpentine lake in Hyde Park.
The sculpture, which consists of 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform in the Serpentine Lake, will be on view until 23 September 2018. The London Mastaba is the first major outdoor public work by Christo in the UK, and it coincides with an exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries of Christo and his late wife Jeanne–Claude’s work, which opens 19 June and continues until 9 September 2018.
 
“For three months, The London Mastaba will be a part of Hyde Park's environment in the centre of London," said Christo. “The colours will transform with the changes in the light and its reflection on the Serpentine Lake will be like an abstract painting. It has been a pleasure to work with The Royal Parks to realize The London Mastaba and with our friends at the Serpentine Galleries to create an exhibition showing Jeanne-Claude’s and my 60-year history of using barrels in our work.”

The London Mastaba

The construction of Christo’s temporary sculpture began on 3 April 2018 by JK Basel, Deep Dive Systems, and Coventry Scaffolding as well as a team of engineers from Schlaich Bergermann Partner. The London Mastaba consists of 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform, 20 metres (65.5 ft) high x 30 metres (90 ft) wide (at the 60° slanted walls) x 40 metres (130 ft) long. Standard 55 gallon barrels, 59 x 88 cm (2 ft x 3 ft), were fabricated and painted for the sculpture. The sides of the barrels, visible on the top and on the two slanted walls of the sculpture, are red and white. The ends of the barrels, visible on the two vertical walls, are blue, mauve and a different hue of red.

The sculpture’s floating platform is made of interlocking high-density polyethylene (HDPE) cubes and is held in place with 32 6-tonne anchors. The barrel-supporting substructure consists of scaffolding and a steel frame that connects to the floating platform. The sculpture’s total weight is 600 tonnes and its footprint takes up approximately 1% of the total surface area of the lake.

All construction materials are certified as having low environmental impact to preserve the ecosystem of the lake. The removal of the sculpture will begin on 23 September 2018. While some equipment and materials, such as scaffolding, have been rented and will be returned, the other materials will be removed and industrially recycled in the UK following the project. The London Mastaba is being entirely funded by Christo, through the sale of his original works of art. No public money is used for Christo’s projects and he does not accept sponsorship.
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Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, the primary artist, was born on June 13, 1935 (81 years old) in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. His father, Vladimir Javacheff, was a scientist, and his mother, Tsveta Dimitrova, was secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. The artists of the Academy who visited his family observed Christo's artistic talent at an early age.

By his father, Christo is a descendant of a German immigrant in Bulgaria. Christo's great-grandfather, the German Friedrich Fischer, had invented a modern system for mass production of bearings. Fischer sent his son-the grandfather of Christo, Vitus Fischer- to Bulgaria to inaugurate the first bearing factory in Eastern Europe. After the collapse of the project (14 Bulgarian workers died in an accident at the factory) and seeing that the local police looked askance, Vitus Fischer changed its identity to that of Dmitri Javacheff, name of one of the workers who died in the accident. With its new identification, Vitus was reincorporated into society as an ordinary Bulgarian and started working on a milk production business. Dmitri's grandson, Vladimir Javacheff, showed the technological skills of his grandfather and became an academically successful scientist in Bulgaria, although it was still poor.

Christo realized its German origins in the early 1970s and, after a brief trial in the courts of the then West Germany, was compensated with 49% of the assets of Friedrich Fischer. Although this would Christo a millionaire, he decided to live modestly in a part of what produced his artistic work, donating most of his income and his inheritance to charity.

In his youth, Christo became interested in theater and in the works of Shakespeare. In 1953, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts, but became disillusioned strict curriculum imposed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party at the time. He studied art at the Academy of Sofia from 1952 to 1956 and another year in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In 1957, Christo fled the socialist state hiding in a truck transporting medicine to Austria.

Christo quickly settled in Vienna and enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. After only one semester there, he traveled to Geneva and then moved to Paris. Because the trip, citizenship lost and became a stateless person. His life in Paris was marked by economic deprivation and social isolation, which was increased by his difficulty in learning the French language. He earned money by painting portraits, which compared with prostitution. By visiting the galleries and museums of the city, he was inspired by the work of Joan Miró, Nicholas de Stael, Jackson Pollock, Jean Tinguely and mainly in Jean Dubuffet.

In January 1958, Christo made his first piece of "art wrapped" covered an empty paint jar with a cloth soaked in acrylic. He tied and colored with glue, sand and car paint. A German entrepreneur named Dieter Rosenkranz bought several small "wrapped" works by Christo. It was through Rosenkranz that Christo met artist Yves Klein French and art historian Pierre Restany.

Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude (born 1935 in Casablanca, Morocco, died 2009, New York City, USA) are among the world's most celebrated artists. The artists began their collaboration in 1961. Their large-scale projects include Wrapped Coast, Australia, 1968–69; Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72; Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, Cal ifornia, 1972–76; Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Florida, 1980–83; The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975–85; The Umbrellas,  Japan–USA, 1984–91;  Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971–95; Wrapped Trees, Riehen, Switzerland, 1997–98; The Gates, Central Park, New Yo rk City, 1979–2005; and The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014–16. Their work is represented in museums and galleries throughout the globe including the Guggenheim and Metropolitan museums in New York, the Tate in London and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. 
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Published on: June 19, 2018
Cite: "Artist Christo's London Mastaba in Hyde Park Serpentine Lake is open to the public" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/artist-christos-london-mastaba-hyde-park-serpentine-lake-open-public> ISSN 1139-6415
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