Münster Sculpture Lost and Found; Damaged Twombly May Head to US; Tunick has Plans for Swiss Glacier; Buren in California; Christo and Jeanne-Claude in UAE
MÜNSTER SCULPTURE STOLEN—AND FOUND
For a brief period last week, Skulptur Projekte Münster lost one of its thirty-four public installations. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, Michael Asher's contribution—a trailer that was also shown in the last edition of the city's public-sculpture project, in 1997—disappeared without a trace. Police reported that the trailer had turned up in the town of Telgte, Germany, approximately six miles from Münster. An initial inspection found no damage to the work, which is an original. The trailer will undergo another inspection before being reinstalled in the exhibition.
LIPSTICK TRACES
The Cy Twombly work defaced last week in Avignon, France, by a woman who planted a lipstick kiss on the white painting, may be heading to the United States for restoration. As Agence France-Presse and Le Monde report, experts are being consulted regarding how best to repair the painting, which is part of the 1997 triptych The Three Dialogues of Plato. The triptych, estimated at €2 million ($2.7 million), belongs to the Yvon Lambert Collection.
"We will try to return the painting to its original state as far as possible," said Eric Mézil, the curator for the exhibition, which took place at the Hôtel de Caumont. In another report, Mézil qualified the kiss as both "vandalism; and "rape." Rindy Sam, the French artist who kissed the work as part of a performance piece, is set to face the courts on August 16. Twombly, who lives in Italy, asked for the work to be removed, and refused to prolong the exhibition—slated to close September 30—into October.
As Mézil told AFP, several cosmetic companies have contacted the Lambert Collection to reveal the chemical composition of their lipsticks—usually a trade secret—to facilitate the removal of the red stain. Mézil also received a proposal from NASA laboratories to perform the restoration. "There's a chance that the work will be restored in the US," Mézil told AFP, although it remains unclear whether NASA will do the job. While insurance companies hammer out the details, laboratory tests are currently under way in both Paris and Marseille.
TUNICK'S NEXT STOP: SWISS GLACIER
In an effort to highlight the impact of global warming, artist Spencer Tunick will photograph naked people on a melting glacier. As Der Standard reports, fifteen hundred people have already signed up for the group portrait, which will take place in association with Greenpeace on August 19. To prevent unwelcome voyeurs, Greenpeace will disclose the glacier's name only to invited journalists.
Tunick added another twist. The American artist sent personal invitations to each member of Swiss Parliament, asking them to participate in the event. While most politicians have declined, some are willing to strip to support the environment. Social Democratic national councilor Fabio Pedrina explained that he had already been naked on a glacier, "although without the press." His party colleague Evi Allemann could imagine participating "as a symbolic act" but will decide over vacation. In the Green Party, there are several ready to get naked and cold, including Geri Müller and Urs Bernhardsgrütter, who welcomed the alliance between art and politics.
BUREN IN CALIFORNIA
Daniel Buren is set to create a work in Pasadena, California. As AFP and Le Monde report, the French artist intends to hang eight thousand orange and red flags in the old section of the city. The work—titled A Colored Square in the Sky—will be installed above an open square on the edge of Colorado Avenue, the city's main thoroughfare. The public work, organized by the Armory Center for the Arts, the Alliance Française, and the California French consulate, is Buren's first in California in thirty-seven years. The installation will be on view from August 11, 2008, to November 11, 2008.
CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE IN THE UAE
In an interview with Le Monde's Harry Bellet, Christo and Jeanne-Claude discuss their new project, Mastaba, planned for the United Arab Emirates. The installation—comprising close to four hundred thousand oil barrels, piled into a flattened pyramid form approximately two-thirds the height of the Eiffel Tower—will be built on a slight elevation in the desert on the shores of the Persian Gulf.
"The word mastaba is of Arabic origin and means 'bank,'" Christo and Jeanne-Claude told Le Monde. "But that's also how the first Egyptian graded pyramids were named." The work is not a new one. "It goes back to the sixties, with the wall of 240 barrels that we installed on June 27, 1962, on Visconti Street in Paris," the duo explained. In 1968, they proposed a similar project between Houston and Galveston, Texas, a project that was never realized. In the early '70s, the pair were also unsuccessful in creating the work in Holland at the headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell. After first visiting Abu Dhabi in 1979, Christo and Jeanne-Claude revived their plan for the current site.
Unlike the pair's earlier works—whether in New York's Central Park or on Berlin's Reichstag—Mastaba will be a permanent installation. "There's no real 'forever' on earth," the pair explained. "Even the dinosaurs are no longer here. But, if it's well maintained, Mastaba could remain between four and five thousand years, according to our engineers."
The pair also discussed Over the River, a project planned for Colorado. "We are going to cover the Arkansas River with 9.5 kilometers [5.9 miles] of material, which will be stretched with breaks, over 60 kilometers [37.2 miles]." Why the Arkansas River? "It's the most used in the United States for rafting in inflated boats. There are 300,000 rafters each summer. . . . If we get permission, the pieces of material will be set up for two weeks, between July 15 and August 15, 2011." Although authorization has not yet been given, the pair have already invested five million dollars in the project. "But that's more fun than losing the money in Las Vegas."