Christo – Running Fence California (1972-1976)

Exhibition poster featuring the work, Running Fence, California (1972-1976), by the Bulgarian-American artist, Christo (1935-2020). In 1978, Louisiana's exhibition showed Christo's documentation of his Californian, "Running Fence": A white nylon fabric that Christo, after several years of preparation, traveled from the coast and 40 kilometers inland, at a height of 5.5 meters, suspended from 2000 masts.

Christo has always worked on gigantic projects: a 20,000 square meter orange carpet over a valley in the United States—a work Louisiana also exhibited in 1974—and the wrapping of the German government building in Berlin, to name just a few.

Also with Running Fence, the Louisiana exhibition showed Christo's documentary and sociological reportage about the preparations, which for Christo were part of the artwork.

Together with his assistants and lawyers, he persuaded farmers, road workers, city councils, conservation and other authorities and he made calculations together with whole teams of engineers and other specialists. Christo raised the financing with support from museums, art collectors and other interested parties, who bought, among other things, the project's preliminary studies, drawings and collages.

In this way, Christo did not just create things of beauty. As a landscape and environmental artist, his actions uncovered societal mechanisms and shed light on attitudes, prejudices and legislation. And the sheer size of his works became a quality in itself.