CHRISTO

The other work we started in 1992, it is called Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River in the state of Colorado, we haven't got the permit yet. And, we are working at both of those, trying to get the permit. Therefore, we do not know which one will be realized next.

We have created indoor installations inside museums, like the Wrapped Floor at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 1968, and not monumental at all by any standards.

We are probably the only artists in the world who have a 2,000-page book on a work of art that doesn't exist. But in this way, these projects reveal their identity through this whole process. When I'm starting, I only have the slightest idea of how the work of art will exist.

But now, today, we don't know if Over the River is truly the next project to be realized, because something very nice happened to our life in November in New York.

Some of the projects we've proposed over the years have been refused. But we never do other people's ideas; our ideas come out of our two hearts and our two heads.

And for me, the real world involves everything: risk, danger, beauty, energy, all we meet with in the real world.

And for every project, because it takes years, you can see the early drawings and collages as just a simple, vague idea, and through the years and through the negotiations of getting the permit, you see that every detail is now clarified.

Therefore we have to go over the fact that all human beings are afraid by what is new. It is our work to convince them that they will enjoy it, and even if they don't, to allow us just for 14 days to create that work of art.

Because we do not sell photographs, we have no royalties on books, posters, postcards.

To keep that absolute freedom we cannot be obliged to anyone.

The only place where people in Manhattan walk for leisure is in the park.

Now, there is no way to say how long some projects take, that's our principle.

In 1964, when we first arrived in New York City, I remember vividly seeing the skyline of Manhattan, and our first proposal of 1964 was to wrap two lower Manhattan buildings. We never got permission.

All our projects are like fabulous expeditions. The story of each project is unique. Our projects have no precedent.

People think our work is monumental because it's art, but human beings do much bigger things: they build giant airports, highways for thousands of miles, much, much bigger than what we create.

I do a lot of work that's permanent. The drawings, the sculptures, they're permanent.

If some of our works are symphonies, then wrapped walkways was chamber music.

In 1964, Jeanne-Claude and I became illegal aliens. That's when we moved here from Paris. And for three years, we were illegal aliens living in an illegal building. At that time, some artists started to move to SoHo, and they put A.I.R. - artists-in-residence - up on their windows.

It is not only one person's work, it's really a partnership and collaboration during all these years.

We never work on only one project because we never know if we will get permission for a project. So, for 'Over the River,' we started in 1992. I was just finishing 'The Umbrellas' in Japan and California, and I was also working on getting permission to wrap the Reichstag.

It appears to be monumental only because it's art.

The freedom of every artist is essential.

The decision to use only the name Christo was made deliberately when we were young because it is difficult for one artist to get established and we wanted to put all the chances on our side.

I escaped from my home country, Bulgaria, to Czechoslovakia and then to the West.

And the most unusual and surrealistic place in New York City is Central Park.