[Audio Guide]
Large blue umbrellas are scattered amid a tranquil landscape. In 1991, the Umbrella Project by the husband-and-wife team of Christo and Jeanne-Claude was implemented in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, concurrently with one in California. This project featured umbrellas as much as six meters in height and 8.69 meters in diameter, numbering an astonishing 1,340 and distributed over an area of about 19 square kilometers. Realization of the project took six years, and involved the creation of 450 drawings and extensive negotiations to secure cooperation. Funds for the project were raised through sales of drawings and plans, allowing Christo and Jeanne-Claude to maintain their creative freedom by not relying on external financial aid. The umbrellas were installed for only 18 days, making the spectacle a fleeting one. Indeed, the essence of the ephemeral project lies in its brief appearance and subsequent vanishing. The late Christo and Jeanne-Claude believed that art is joyful, beautiful, and transient, like life itself, and they live on in people’s memories through works that temporarily transform public spaces.
[Audio Guide]
As is suggested by the work’s title of “Package,” something has been wrapped in cloth and tied with string. The contents of the package are unknown. The fabric follows the contours of the object within, and the twine is irregular due to the object’s uneven shape. Not knowing what lies inside makes this a mysterious piece. By rejecting the gaze of the viewer, this is precisely what causes us to wonder what is inside and excites our sense of curiosity. Amid our everyday lives there are things that we don’t pay any special attention to, and by hiding them, shifting the context, accumulating them to excess, etc., they are bestowed with a different significance, and transformed to be viewed as an art object. There are several artists like Christo and others of his generation that use this mode of expression, in which every single thing is to be appreciated, and given the privilege of being talked about.
