Artwork: The Latest Architecture and News

Two years ago, on September 18, 2021, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, 1961–2021, was inaugurated. The monumental public artwork wrapped the Parisian monument in over 25,000 square meters of silvery fabric tied in place with 7,000 meters of red rope. The materials, all made out of woven polypropylene, a type of thermoplastic, are now being reused, upcycled, and recycled, following the artists’ vision. Most of the materials will be transformed to serve practical uses for future public events in Paris. The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation is also collaborating with Gagosian to bring Christo’s early works to London’s East End for an exhibition open from October 6-22, 2023.

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The London Design Festival is an annual event that brings together designers, practitioners, retailers, and educators from across the globe. This year’s program of events, exhibitions, and installations invites creative leaders to exchange ideas and solutions for some of the most pressing issues of our time, like climate change, pollution, and resource depletion. The festival includes the Landmarks Projects. As part of this initiative, Rotterdam-based designer Sabine Marcelis has created “Swivel”, an outdoor installation in central London. Other installations like Sony Design’s “Into Sight” pavilion or Sou Fujimoto’s “Medusa” exhibition explore visual and sensorial effects through physical and virtual mediums.

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Michael Heizer’s immense sculpture the City, an ambitious artwork of an extraordinary size, will begin to accept visits from the public beginning September 2, 2022. The announcement was made by the Triple Aught Foundation, the not-for-profit organization responsible for managing the long-term oversight and maintenance of Michael Heizer’s immense sculpture. The artwork, a mile and a half long and nearly half a mile wide, is located in a remote stretch of the high Nevada desert. Work on the structure began in 1972 when the artist was 27 years old.

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Hexton Gallery has announced the opening of “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Ephemeral Nature,” a curated exhibition that showcases never-seen-before works from Christo and Jeanne-Claude's private collection. The exhibition will feature an extensive selection of original drawings, collages, and wrapped objects from the couple's private collection, many of which have never been shown to the public until now. The gallery, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation have also launched a year-long program focused on the artists’ pioneering impact on environmental art, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 1972 Valley Curtain project in Rifle, Colorado.

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Videos

Ma Yansong, principal partner of MAD Architects, have revealed his latest artwork "Flow" at the recently opened 8^th Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale. Taking place this summer in Japan, the installation reinvents part of the “Tunnel of Light” artwork that was completed back in 2018. Through a series of immersive platforms, the architects abstracted and captured the spirit of the Kiyotsu River, providing visitors with an immersive and dynamic spatial experience. The Triennale hopes to improve the local economy through art, and promote a more harmonious relationship between human and nature.

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After an extensive five-year restoration carried out by David Chipperfield Architects and Generali, the iconic Procuratie Vecchie in St. Mark's Square has opened again to the city, with an installation by Italian artist Edoardo Tresoldi. Titled "Monumento", the artwork responds to the new socially-driven functions presented by the vast space, "renewing the language of the monumental column and the values to which society aspires in order to reflect its own epoch".

The City of Sydney has chosen Adjaye Associates and contemporary Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd to design a new public square, plaza building, and public artwork. The project attempts to uncover the lost history of the site, reconcile cultures and define identities.

American artist Michael Velliquette has produced his latest series of paper-based artwork, creating intricate paper models of sacred architecture. His hand-cut paper shapes are assembled into complex forms “akin to sacred architecture and three-dimensional mandalas.”

Prioritizing formal symmetry, balance, and order, the models aim to evoke “a sense of visual equanimity” through a restrained palette of neutral or monochromatic tones.

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Constructed as part of Agrikultura—a triennial of public artworks and urban interventions in Malmö, Sweden—this installation, described by the designers a "maquette of a monument to the honeybee", is in fact home to an entire colony. It references—by design—the mysterious elements of 'bee orientation': verticality (gravity), geometry (the cell structure of the beehive), and the position of the sun relative to the hive. The project is, on the one hand, "a potential memorial for the bees" while, on the other, "a celebration of the sun on which all life depends."

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