Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Wrapped Trees,
Fondation Beyler, Berower Park,
Riehen, Switzerland, 1997-98

Starting on Friday, November 13, 1998, 178 trees were wrapped with 55,000 square meters (592,034 square feet) of woven polyester fabric (used every winter in Japan to protect the trees from frost and heavy snow) and 23.1 kilometers (14.35 miles) of rope. The wrapping was completed on November 22.

The trees are located in the park around the Fondation Beyeler and in the adjacent meadow as well as along the creek of Berower Park. The first record of Berower Park goes back to the year 1551.  A 1786 map of Riehen shows a small French garden and a large area of vineyards. In 1832 it was redesigned by F. R. Caillat as a privately owned English park.

In 1976 the ownership of Berower Park was transferred to the community of Riehen, located northeast of Basel, at the border of Germany. The park includes a great diversity of trees: Chestnut, Oak, Ash, Plum, Cherry, Linden, Gingko, Beech, Birch, Sycamore, Maple, Catalpa, Hazelnut and Golden Weeping Willow.

The height of the trees varies between 25 meters (82 feet) and 2 meters (6.56 feet) with a diameter from 14.5 meters (47 feet) to 1 meter (3.25 feet).

The project was organized by Josy Kraft, project director and by Wolfgang and Sylvia Volz, project managers, who also surveyed the trees and designed the sewing patterns for each tree.

 J. Schilgen GmbH & Co., Emsdetten, Germany wove the fabric. Günter Heckmann, Emsdetten, Germany cut and sewed the fabric according to each pattern. Meister + Cie. AG, Hasle-Rüegsau, Switzerland manufactured the ropes.

Field manager Frank Seltenheim of Seilpartner, Berlin, Germany, directed eight teams working simultaneously: ten climbers, three tree pruners and twenty workers.

As they have always done, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have paid the expenses of the project themselves through the sale of original works to museums, private collectors and galleries.

The artist do not accept sponsorship of any kind

The wrapping was removed on December 14, 1998 and the materials were recycled.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude have worked with trees for many years: in 1966 a 10 meter (33 foot) long ”Wrapped Tree” was part of a personal exhibition at the Stedelijk van AbbeMuseum in Eindhoven, Holland.

”Wrapped Trees” was proposed for the park adjacent to the Saint Louis Museum of Art, Missouri.
In 1968, at the occasion of a personal exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, there was a project for ”Wrapped Trees” for the museum’s garden.

In 1969  ”Two Wrapped Trees” 9.5 meters (31 feet) and 5.2 meters (17 feet) were created in Sydney, Australia for the art collector John Kaldor.

Also in 1969, the artists requested permission for ”Wrapped Trees, Project for 330 Trees, Avenue des Champs-Elysées, Paris” which was denied by Maurice Papon, Prefect of Paris.

The ”Wrapped Trees” in Riehen were the outcome of 32 years of effort.

On November 13, 1998, an exhibition opened at the Galerie Beyeler in Basel, retracing the itinerary of those proposals with collages, drawings and scale models created through the years and preparatory studies for the ”Wrapped Trees” in Riehen as well as some early works of the fifties and sixties.

The branches of the ”Wrapped Trees” pushing the translucent fabric outward created dynamic volumes of light and shadow, moving in the wind with new forms and surfaces shaped by the ropes on the fabric.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Wrapped Trees
Press Communique

Riehen, Switzerland, December 3, 1998

We have seen our work of art, Wrapped Trees, Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, 1997-98, as part of the exhibition The Magic of Trees at the Fondation Beyeler. Together with the Fondation, we had planned that the Wrapped Trees might remain longer than the usual 14 days.

However, as with all of previous temporary work of art, the 14 day duration of the project's exhibition has been an aesthetic choice.

Therefore, after having enjoyed and shared our work of art with so many visitors, as artists, we have now decided that Wrapped Trees, Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, 1997-98 will remain until December 13, 1998. Then the project will be removed and all materials will be recycled

Statement:

The temporality of a work of art creates a feeling of fragility, vulnerability and an urgency to be seen, as well as a presence of the missing, because we know it will be gone tomorrow.

The quality of love and tenderness that human beings have towards what will not last - for instance the love and tenderness we have for childhood and our lives - is a quality we want to give to our work as an additional aesthetic quality.

Wrapped Trees: Projects and Realizations
Chronology

• 1964                   
Project for a Wrapped Tree. (not realized)

• 1966
Wrapped Trees, Project for Forest Park, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. (not realized).

• 1966                 
Wrapped Tree. Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland. Length 10 meters                  
(33 feet), diameter 63,5.centimeters (25 inches) (no longer existing).        
        
• 1967
Wrapped Trees, project for the Fondation Maeght Saint Paul de Vence, France. (not realized).

• 1967                   
Two Wrapped Trees, Fondation Maeght, Saint Paul de Vence, France. (no longer existing).                                                                                                           
• 1968                   
Wrapped Tree. Collection Vera List, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA.
Length 17.7 meters (58 feet), diameter 91 centimeters (3 feet). (no longer existing).                                                                                                           
• 1968                   
Wrapped Trees, Project for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA. (not realized).

• 1968                 
Wrapped Trees and Sculpture Garden, Project for the Museum of Modern Art, New York
(not realized).

• 1968-69        
Wrapped Trees, Project for the Avenue des Champs Elysées and the Rond-Point des Champs Elysées, Paris, France. (not realized).

• 1969                 
Two Wrapped Trees. Collection John Kaldor, Sydney, Australia. Length 9.5 meters (31 feet), diameter: 91 centimeters (3 feet). And length: 5.18 meters (17 feet), diameter: 91 centimeters (3 feet).

• 1969                 
Wrapped Tree. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA. Length 10,6 meters (35 feet), diameter 71 centimeters ( 2.5 feet). (no longer existing).

• 1970-71        
Two Wrapped Trees, Project for the Garden of Peppino Agrati, Veduggio, Italy. (not realized).

• 1994
Wrapped Tree, Project for the Würth Museum, Kunzelsau, Germany. (not realized).