Christo and Jeanne-Claudes’s “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped” has been postponed

After forever kicking myself for not having made the trip to NYC to see Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates back in 2005 I promised myself I wouldn’t let another pass me by.

Of course I then failed again when Christo realized The Floating Piers in 2016. Jeanne-Claude had died in 2009 and as they worked as a team I wasn’t sure that he would continue on alone so that one snuck up on me.

Thankfully there was a fantastic documentary about The Floating Piers called Walking on Water so I could at least pretend I went. And after seeing the insanity that it became I don’t know I would have been able to get there even if I tried. It’s definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.

Once again I was totally surprised to find out in early January of this year that there would be another one happening later this year. L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped was set to happen in the fall of this year.

Needless to say I was very excited as Paris is a way easier destination and one of my favorite cities so I absolutely planned to go. But of course the pandemic hit and the world came to a grinding halt.

There was also to be an exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Center called Christo and Jeanne Claude – Paris! from March 18 to June 15, 2020, which will cover their previous Parisian works, the wrapping of the Pont-Neuf, as well as preview the upcoming piece at the Arc de Triomphe.

I don’t know if the exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou will be extended or not, but happily, I can report that it has been decided to postpone L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped for one year due to the pandemic.

The newly scheduled dates are from Sept 18 – Oct 3 of 2021. Given all the highly optimistic rescheduling of all sorts of things these days, this seems like an actually plausible date. I truly hope so.

L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped
Paris, France
September 18 - October 3, 2021