Esquire — June 2018 75
Christo has wrapped the
Reichstag, turned islands
pink and enabled people to
walk on water. his month
in London, the Bulgarian
artist unveils his newest
work, a truncated pyramid
floating on the Serpentine
Lake. But the London
Mastaba is a scaled-down
version of another, far
more ambitious work: one
that he and his late wife,
Jeanne-Claude, had been
planning for decades and
which, if he completes
it, will be the bigest and
most expensive sculpture
ever created. But as Christo
turns 83, are the odds
against their masterwork
being realised in his own
lifetime starting to stack?
By Miranda Collinge