This collage is an early preparatory study for the project ‘Wrapped Reichstag’, which on 24 June 1995, came to fruition for fourteen days after twenty four years of planning. Christo first conceived the project in 1971 and enlisted 90 professional climbers and 120 installation workers to complete the wrapping of the Reichstag. As with all ‘wrapping’ projects the installation was entirely funded by the artists themselves through the sale of preparatory drawings, such as the present 1985 collage.

The Reichstag is a building seeped in history. Built in 1894 to house the democratic Government of the newly formed German Empire, in 1918 Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a German republic from its balcony ushering in the Weimar Republic. The Reichstag has been nearly destroyed twice, firstly by fire in 1933 and then by bombing in 1945.

For Christo the Reichstag always stood as a symbol of Democracy, but the political tensions of the Cold War made the realisation of their project difficult. However, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, Christo was finally able to bring this project to life. The 100,000 square meters of polypropylene fabric that wrapped the Reichstag flowed over the structure highlighting its majesty, and when the building was unwrapped two weeks later the Reichstag re-emerged, welcoming a new era in Germany history removed from turmoil.

The artist ‘Christo’ refers to the collaborative oeuvre of husband and wife Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Born on the same day in 1935, the pair formed a life-long creative partnership following their marriage in 1958. The couple are celebrated for their ambitious large-scale outdoor installations that reinvent familiar landscapes and man-made constructions with a sense of joy and beauty. Their many projects include ‘The Gates’ (1979-2005) in Central Park, New York, ‘The Pont Neuf Wrapped’ (1975-85) in Paris and ‘The London Mastabo, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park’ (2018) in London. Christo have exhibited internationally, most notably at Documenta 4 (1967-68), Museum of Modern Art, New York (1968), Fondation Maeght, St Paul de Vence (1985), Galerie Beyeler, Basel (1998), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2004) and The Smithsonian, Washington (2010).