Christo and Jeanne-Claude
THE MASTABA:
Project for The United Arab Emirates

The Mastaba will be a work of art made of approximately 410,000 horizontally stacked oil barrels.

The grandeur and vastness of the land will be reflected in the dimensions of the Mastaba, which will be:

Conceived in 1977, the Mastaba will have an overall surfacing of 55-gallon stainless steel oil barrels of various bright colors.

Hundreds of bright colors, as enchanting as Islamic mosaics, will give a  constantly changing visual experience according to the time of the day and the quality of the light.

In a distant area, there could be a complex with parking facilities, a worship room, rest areas for the public and lodging for the curator, the maintenance personnel and the guardians.

Palm trees, eucalyptus trees, thorn trees and other shrubbery will be planted around the Mastaba, at a distance, as a windbreak, to minimize the force of the sand and windstorms.

The area adjacent to the walkways approaching the Mastaba will be like an oasis with flowers and grass.

The Mastaba, a work of art whose only purpose is to be itself, will be situated on a slightly rising plain to allow visitors the full impact of the uniqueness of this monument, as they approach by foot, automobile, or by air.

ADDENDUM CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE: THE MASTABA

Mastaba (from the Arabic word meaning bench) is a forerunner of the pyramids, that form belongs to the trapezoidgeometric shape and is oblong.

The Mastaba for the United Arab Emirates has 2 slanted sides and 2 vertical sides, with a flat top, while a pyramid has all 4 triangular slanted sides and a pointed top.

The Mastaba, project for the United Arab Emirates which was started in 1977, thirty years ago, differs from the artists previous projects in two ways:

A)
Christo and Jeanne-Claude have already spent over a million dollars, through the years between 1979 and 1982 working extensively with the UAE authorities in the United Arab Emirates and for planning, feasibility studies and preliminary designs with engineers from USA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, France and Japan.

It is indeed logical to expect that the construction of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Mastaba of The UAE can only be financed by the ruler if he wishes to have an option to build and take care of the maintenance of a structure which is larger and taller than the largest pyramid in Giza, Egypt.

Dimensions of The Mastaba for the UAE:

• 150 meters (492 feet) high.
• 225 meters (738 feet) deep.
• 300 meters (984 feet) wide.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Mastaba for The United Arab Emirates
in comparison to the largest pyramid in Giza, Egypt.

B)
Other sculptures (not temporary) by Christo, using barrels, created between 1958 and the late 60s, are in museums and private collections.

The use of oil barrels follows a tradition in the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude since the 1958 “Wrapped Oil Barrels”; “Stacked Oil Barrels” and “Dockside Package, 1961, in Cologne, Germany”; the “Barrels Structures 1962” in Gentilly, France; “Wall of Oil Barrels-The Iron Curtain, Rue Visconti, Paris, June 1962”; “56 Oil Barrels Structure 1966” donated by Martin and Mia Visser to the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Holland; “The Mastaba of 1,240 Oil Barrels, 1968, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia”. “The Wall, 13,000 Oil Barrels” installation in the Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany, 1999.

Some NOT realized proposals for a Mastaba:
1967, indoor installation for the Galleria Nazionale, Rome, Italy.
1967, The Central Park Mastaba, New York City, USA.
1968-70, Texas Mastaba, Houston and Galveston, USA .
1973, The Otterlo Mastaba, The Netherlands.

1977, first drawings for The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi, Project for The United Arab Emirates.

1978 Christo and Jeanne-Claude started to work at The Mastaba, Project for the United Arab Emirates.