"This is where lovers come." "I think I'll use an amber, or beige, like the stone of Paris." "I'm very traditional about my old Paris," "So when people talk about tampering with it..." "We don't want to change it or destroy it." "We want to celebrate for 14 days." "It will be transformed." "It will become a work of art and then will be returned to its original state." "If you look at the old paintings of Derain or Marquet, who did the Pont Neuf, the bridge is blue or violet which is not its real color." "It's their interpretation of the bridge." "I like this bridge wonderfully well as it is." "Because the volume of the cloth is 100% greater than that of the stone, we'll have an extraordinary movement of the cloth by the wind." "One of the extraordinary things about the Pont Neuf is that it's a bridge for people." "People use it almost like a street." "Wrapping the Pont Neuf is not only a work of art." "It will create dialogue." "The value of public debate is practically equal to the artwork." "Yes." "Creating a debate is certainly not the only interesting thing." "But will everyone recognize the project as art?" "Won't there be some who will feel the need to speak out?" "Like my secretary, who had never once spoken to me about a cultural project... but in this case she became excited;" "without any special knowledge, she reacted." "She's going to talk about it and even think about it." "She's even going to reflect, saying, "but how..."" "We're very happy if my work makes people think." "Now, how do we go about making decisions in this system?" "The man to convince is Mayor Jacques Chirac." "Everything must be prepared." "I don't want you to meet him unless there's a 90% chance of success." "Hello, father darling." "How are you?" "Let's see how you look." " Very well." " How's everything?" " Fine." " Good." "Hello." "How's everything?" "It will be a discussion about the history of France, if it's art..." "All those things but not..." "But not about current politics." "Exactly." "Jacques Chirac is terribly political, ambitious, rather short-sighted... and his primary concern is..." ""What are they going to think of me?" not..." ""What are they going to think of Christo?"" "Or "What will they think of Pont Neuf?"" "No, listen, "What are they going to think of me?"" "Won't there be a sector of the voting population that's going to say," ""He's off his rocker, this guy." ""I'm not going to vote for him"?" "I think that we should speak to Mr. Debre... because he's one of the important people in the Gaullist party... who can really put..." "Pressure?" "No, not pressure." "I don't want pressure." "Influence." "But what is his position in the party?" "In the Gaullist party." "He's the leader." "He's the Ayatollah." "That's true." "He's the Ayatollah." "He has an extraordinary past which carries enormous political weight in France." "It holds weight in Congress, It holds weight everywhere," "He's the conscience of Gaullism," "And he's very well respected," "The decision-maker is Jacques Chirac." "We all know that very well." "He is the mayor of Paris." "But you're a man of influence whose opinion counts... especially when it comes to cultural matters... and if you show a certain interest in this project... if you think that it's worthwhile..." "Perhaps that would reassure Mr. Chirac." "Your analysis is accurate." "Chirac is apprehensive about public opinion." "Even if this project is shocking, and it is..." "We are of that breed who know no retreat from the fear of shocking others." "You know what courage is." "Christo fled Bulgaria at the time of the Budapest uprising..." "I escaped." "...with only a pen in his pocket." "When I met him in 1958 he lived in a maid's room." "He married my daughter, but that's another story." "He said, "Yes, I remember the heroic times" and then..." "I moved the conversation back towards Christo saying:" ""You know, this guy had a lot of courage to leave Bulgaria..." ""under such difficult circumstances..." "to start all over again from zero..."" "which made him, in the eyes of Debre..." "Oh, Papa, if only he will succeed in convincing Jacques Chirac." "Where is the statue of Henry IV?" "Paris has always been the capital where things happen." "And when Maria Medici commissioned Urbino, it was something very advanced." "Avant garde." "Paris must not stay enclosed in its past and things must happen." "This is a unique opportunity." "Here's a delicate question..." "We'll show the model tomorrow evening." "It will stay 4 weeks in the window at the Samaritaine." "I don't want Chirac, when he sees the model to say:" ""You know, I've had enough of this project." "Leave me alone."" "On the contrary, I want this model to be an instrument for dialogue." "It seems to me that Chirac is very old-fashioned." "That's exactly what I think:" "He likes the opera, but not modern painting." "But it's not painting, it's..." "But he thinks of it that way." "It's modern art, so he doesn't like it." "He likes opera." "He likes Verdi, like everyone." "He likes fancy tapestries, that one." "Christo, listen!" "The mayor said he's against it." "Who told you that?" "The news, on television." "Chirac said that he's against it." "I'm not going to get upset!" "Christo, wait, listen to me, listen!" "This isn't the end." "We can try other things." "But why does everything have to be so political?" "I saw Chirac at a "parlementaire" meeting at the Baule with his deputies." "I asked him what was happening... and he said that for now he wasn't in favor because..." "Oh, he said that." "He wasn't in favor because people won't understand." "Two years ago, he said that even if it doesn't cost anything, he can't do it." "He's afraid of Parisians' reactions." "Reactions like:" ""It's not beautiful." "It's monstrous." "It's ridiculous."" "But I think that you must succeed in creating in Paris or in the neighborhood," "enthusiasm, comprehension." "You have to de-politicize the problem." "Good day, sir." "I am Christo." "I am Bulgarian." "Excuse my French." "I am a sculptor." " Pardon?" " I am a sculptor..." "I make large-scale projects in the landscape." "Temporary projects... and I would like to cover the Pont Neuf with a silky cloth for 14 days." "It's a temporary project." "Good day, madame." "Do you know about the Pont Neuf Project?" "A little?" " I don't want to know anything." " You don't want to know anything?" "Are you against the Project?" "It's strange, once it starts." "Well, you know, we'll see." "Paintings are witnesses of the evolution of a certain era." "But here there will be nothing left in the end..." "But wait." "Each era has its own means." "We now have electronics." "There is a camera filming us now." "Imagine if under Louis XIV there were cameras." "That would be extraordinary." "The 20th century has developed new means of memory, and all this is a question of historical memory." "It gives me a feeling of uselessness because it's temporary." "Because it's going to disappear after 2 weeks?" "But in the end, the experience, you can never take that away." "Other questions please?" "Yes." "I am asked, "What is the importance of communication in my work?"" "You understand, madame, it's an example of the work." "I am only intelligent enough to communicate... that we must wrap the Pont Neuf." "If it does not happen, that is, if I fail, it means that I was not intelligent enough to understand how things are done in Paris." "When is the meeting with Chirac?" "Tonight at 6:00." "Jeanne-Claude told me I always talk to much." "It's a problem of seduction." " You must be charming." " That's it." "It's a problem of seduction, really..." "Personal." "Between two men." "I've got to tell him my past." "In my opinion, you have to do it humorously." "Okay." "That is..." ""Mr. Mayor, I have come to give you something to worry about."" "I don't speak like that." "I have to speak like that?" "It shouldn't be so..." "Speak as you wish, but I mean you'd be better off saying:" ""Mr. Mayor, I've come..."" ""To give you problems."" ""...to ask a difficult question."" "I lived 6 years in Paris between '58 and '64." "I met my wife Jeanne-Claude and since then I've wanted to do a project of great importance." "Artists have great wills." "I've worked on this project for many years, and it's very close to my heart." "I love Paris." "I'm not sure that it will be that exciting for the Parisians and I'm afraid the project won't be very well received, for cultural reasons." "And also because they would imagine it to be costly." "You know, generally the public goes to museums, to galleries and are confronted with the finished work." "But with my projects, there is all this big movement beforehand." "People imagine how bad it is, how beautiful, ugly or exciting..." "This makes people fantasize, interpret the work, anticipate the final object." "And there's a much more dynamic public than when you are confronted with the completed object." "What will it cost the city of Paris?" "Mr. Mayor, nothing at all." "All the money will come from the sale of my drawings and collages." "No money from the state, nor the taxpayers." "Nothing." " Nor from industry." " Nor from industry." "I don't accept any donations." "Nothing." "We have absolute power over the entire project." "But since we've talked about this project, you can't imagine how many letters I got telling me it's going to cost too much." "It's better to build an extra nursery." "I'm in favor of the project." "I saw the photographs, I saw the model." "I am personally in favor of the project." "But don't say that the decision has been made because then it would make things difficult." "This affair must not be turned into a political battleground." "But after the '83 elections and if I stay in power as I expect, we will be entering a 6-year period of calm and serenity." "We will be able to take the initiative on this." "Without being attacked, except on purely cultural grounds which will be of no importance." "Good, fantastic!" " So, we'll meet again..." " Good, thank you." "...after the election." " April '83." " In a year." " April '83." " In a year." "April '83." "Thank you." "To the right." "To the right." "Mr. Quenot?" "Pull to the right." "How are you?" "Holding up?" " A little tired." " A little tired now?" "It's worth it." "In this kind of adventure you're always jockeying between the reality and dream." "We're completely..." "Like almost losing consciousness..." "You are right." "It's true that it emphasizes the structure of the bridge." "It's becoming like a sketch." "All the details are disappearing." "And the principle outline of the bridge is becoming more visible." "What's also marvelous is the relationship between what you see and what you don't see, between what catches the eye and what is hidden." "Is it tight?" "Is it tight?" "Pull it more." "It's already too tight." "No, you have to pull it more like this." "Vertically." "You don't understand." " But shouldn't this hem be under the water?" " No, it has to be vertical, darling," "Okay, I'll let you talk." "You always know best." "No, I'm talking about the fabric hem, which is there..." "You see where the other hem is?" " Higher?" " Much higher." "Oh, okay." "I thought that the hem should be at water level." "Not at all." "You must pull, pull." " It's not at water level then?" " No, Jeanne." "I'm mixing up everything, darling." "We pull the fabric and then let it fall." "When it falls, the part..." " But he didn't understand that." " He knows." "Frances always did it that way." "And then he lets the fabric go." "That's why it can't go in the water." "I think you should go with them, because you weren't very clear." "Okay, I'll go." "Can you take us to Leon?" "Something is revealed by being masked..." "Here, it's the Pont Neuf." "It's a choice." "He could have chosen something else." "But it's the oldest bridge." "Nothing will stay, it's ephemeral." "But people will look at the Pont Neuf in a different way." "No, it's awful." "It's not normal." "He's a rich man and doesn't know what to do with his money." "He should given it to me." "It's true." "Simon, it's Jeanne-Claude." "Yes, Jeanne-Claude," "There are monitors that still have a lot of paper." "But I just found one that doesn't have any more." "Approximately in the middle of the bridge." "Upstream, big arm." "No, I liked this bridge before." "It's an old bridge." "A nice bridge." "But why, what is the purpose?" "It's just an idea." "Yes, yes, I know." "That's it." "There are crazy people all over the world." "Sit here, Mama." "Mama, they want you to tell how we met." "I asked my hairdresser, "Who on earth did this marvelous drawing?"" "He said, "It's a Bulgarian refugee who has just arrived" ""and he hasn't got anything." "He's all alone."" "I said, "I'd like so much to meet him."" "So he said, "I'll bring him to you."" "So he came and introduced me to Christo Javacheff and said, "Here's the Countess de Guillebon."" "And I saw him and I wanted to help him and I said to him:" ""Would you do my portrait?"" "So he looked at me for a moment and with a nice smile said, "Yes."" "So I said to him, "Okay, it's 12:30." ""My husband is head of the Polytechnique School." ""Why don't you come with me to meet my husband and children?"" "And he was very proud and said, "No, I will come after lunch."" "So, I said, "You know I'm not asking you to make you happy." ""It's to make me happy."" "So he smiled and said, "Okay, I'll come."" "So, I brought him home and when Jeanne-Claude saw him, she whispered to her father:" ""That's Mom, she's brought home another stray dog."" "I said, "Everyone must be kind to him."" "And in a few days, he became our son." "Everyone loved him dearly and there you have it." "And after that..." "And after that..." "After that, he made me suffer a little." "But now I'm happy." "The last line of the poem our son wrote for his father about the Pont Neuf is "Material Light."" "The light one can touch" "Material Light" "It was charming," "Yesterday morning when I switched on my TV, the guest of the day was Christo." "They said:" ""So, Christo, they call you the Pope of contemporary art now."" "And he said, "If I were the Pope of contemporary art," ""it wouldn't have taken me 10 years to get permission."" "It's a success... a real success..." "So you truly agree with Jacques Lang's initiative." "Well, I was the first one to give permission and then later, after having solved various legal problems, such as the ownership of the bridge..." "Jacques Lang gave his full consent." "Don't interpret this as a political consensus." "In this particular case, Jacques Lang was right." "It's not a consensus." "To the Pont Neuf!" "And to Christo!" "You were against Beaubourg, you are against this." "You would have been against the Eiffel Tower." "You would have been against the Louvre, too." "No, it's not true." "And against the Pont Neuf when they were building it." "This bridge..." "I would like this bridge to stay the way it is now." "I came this morning at the crack of dawn." "It was superb." "Get up in the morning and look at it." " You live here?" " Yes." "You are so lucky." "You have this right in front of your eyes." "Yes, the Pont Neuf as it was built..." "You're so lucky." "...in its style, but not this." " It's superb!" " No!" "If it had been designed by Cardin or even Dior, you would have loved it." "No, it's something personal." "We don't get anything out of it." " It's pure art." " This is free art." "It's pure art, there to express what you feel." "He recreated the Pont Neuf." " So to speak." " But in his own way." "Henry IV created the Pont Neuf." "But Christo recreated it;" "he gave it a new image." "And this is art?" "It's not art?" "If you tell me this is art, then we're not talking the same language." "We're using the same words but we're not talking the same language and this is what brought about the catastrophe of the Tower of Babel." "Explain to me what art is then!" "Explain to us what art is." "Explain to me what art is." "Tell me what it is." "It's very complicated." "I can't tell you in two words." "Okay." "But it is a creation of the mind, a creation that transposes reality." "It's an idea!" "No, a creation which transposes reality in such a way that will express something in a sensitive way to others." "Well, it makes me cry to see this." "I'm hypersensitive, it..." "Look, look." "I don't know you." "You don't know me." "If the bridge weren't wrapped, we would have never spoken to each other." "Ever."