Christo’s Next & Final Art To Rise Almost 500ft In Desert, Setting World Record

About 50 years after its concept was first put on paper, a Christo and Jeanne-Claude artwork will finally stand tall and greet the world in a desert area in the United Arab Emirates. This will be the last installation of the late artist couple to be brought into fruition.

The Mastaba, unmistakably inspired by the Egyptian tombs of the same name, will be constructed with 410,000 multicolored stacked steel barrels, aligned to form a mosaic embodying traditional Islamic architecture. At 150 meters (492 feet) tall, 300 meters (984 feet) long, and 225 meters (738 feet) wide, it is poised to become the world’s largest contemporary sculpture in terms of volume.

Photo: Wolfgang Volz. Collection Lilja Art Fund Foundation, Switzerland. Image © 1977 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

The idea first came alive in 1977 and remained unfinished. Before his passing in May 2020, Bulgarian-born Christo instructed his nephew Vladimir Yavachev to continue the work posthumously. Yavachev, who had worked with the husband and wife for three decades, also helped complete the recent L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped in Paris.

The sculpture will also be the only permanent, large-scale public artwork by Christo and the Moroccan artist Jeanne-Claude, Christo’s wife, cementing the duo’s legacy. Its colors were chosen by the pair in 1979, when they visited the UAE for the first time.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude while scouting for a place to build ‘The Mastaba’. Photo: Wolfgang Volz. Image © 1982 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

For now, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation is hoping it can install the work in the desert of Liwa, some 100 miles south of Abu Dhabi.

When finished, the sculpture will be markedly larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza, as well as stand half as tall as the Eiffel Tower, New Atlas reports.

Image © Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

The Mastaba will be self-financed, as with the couple’s other artworks. Planning is still underway, and the artists’ representatives are awaiting approval from the government to build the sculpture on the site. The team can only begin construction after that, which will take at least another three years.

Photo: Wolfgang Volz. Collection Lilja Art Fund Foundation, Switzerland. Image © 2017 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

[via New Atlas and Stuff, images via Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation (for press use only)]