Dockside Packages
Cologne Harbor 1961

CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE
DOCKSIDE PACKAGES, COLOGNE HARBOR, 1961

At the same time as Christo‚s first personal exhibition, at the Haro Lauhus Gallery, in Cologne in 1961, Christo and Jeanne-Claude created their first temporary outdoor environmental work of art.

The gallery was near the waterfront of the Rhine River. For the Dockside Packages the artists used several stacks of oil barrels and large rolls of industrial paper covering them with tarpaulins which they secured with ropes.

With the permission from the Port Authority all the materials were borrowed from the
dockworkers. Dockside Packages was composed of separate parts of various sizes, each approximately 5 x 2 x 10 meters (16.4 x 6.5 x 32.8 feet).

The temporary work of art remained for two weeks.