Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art to Open in Gabrovo, Bulgaria

The Bulgarian town of Gabrovo, birthplace of Christo, is establishing the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art in his and his wife's memory. The center will permanently display works donated by the couple in 2013. It will be housed in the former Textile Technical School, near the House of Humor and Satire. Christo first proposed the idea in 1992, but the municipality only supported it in 2008. After years of bureaucratic delays, construction is expected to be completed by the end of the year on a 10,700-square-meter site. The facility will include exhibition spaces for temporary shows, an event hall, artist studios, educational workshops, co-working areas, and a café-bistro. Christo Vladimirov Javacheff fled communist Eastern Europe in 1956, eventually reaching Paris in 1958 where he met Jeanne-Claude. Together they pioneered land art with large-scale, temporary projects. Notable works include wrapping the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (1969), Pont Neuf (1985), Reichstag (1995), and in Italy, Porta Pinciana (1974) and The Floating Piers on Lake Iseo (2016), which attracted 1.2 million visitors. Their private collection, including gifts from artist friends, was recently auctioned.