In their careers, the painters Christo and Jeanne-Claude were recognised for producing some very striking sculptures. In 1995, the husband-and-wife duo draped the Reichstag with Berlin in fabric, and a decade later, thousands more fluttering panels were put in Central Park in New York. Their posthumous L’Arc De Triomphe, Wrapped – in which the monument was draped in hundreds of ribbons – generated a stir in Paris last year.
Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude died in May 2020 and 2009, respectively, but they left precise ideas for future creations. The finished piece will be the world’s largest sculpture ever. The Mastaba will be erected in the UAE’s Liwa desert, around 100 miles south of Abu Dhabi. The building will be 150 metres high, 300 metres wide, and 225 metres deep, and will be made up of 410,000 multi-coloured barrels.
After a trip to the United Arab Emirates in 1979, the two came up with the concept. Even though they have spent their whole professional life making art, this work will be their sole permanent construction. The massive trapezoid, like numerous of their past works, will be inspired by traditional Islamic architecture.
The Mastaba is currently awaiting official clearance, so construction cannot begin just yet. However, once that is approved, the building stage is expected to last three years. That implies the project may start construction as soon as 2027, just 50 years after it was first envisaged.
