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Christo begins Work on 20 meter-tall floating Mastaba

Bulgarian born artist Christo has revealed his first major outdoor public work for the UK, consisting of a floating Mastaba in the middle of Serpentine Lake stacked with  7,506 brightly coloured barrels. Take a look at the complete story after the jump.

To be built by a team of experienced engineers, “The Mastaba (Project for London, Hyde Park, Serpentine Lake),” will be 20 metres high, 30 metres wide and 40 metres long, andcomprises 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform. The artist is using standard 55-gallon barrels that will be specially fabricated for the sculpture and painted in red and white on the sides, and in hues of red, blue and mauve on the ends.

The entire work is expected to weigh 500 tons. All materials will be certified as having low environmental impact, according to a statement, while industrial recycling is planned for some of them.

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“I am excited to realise this temporary outdoor sculpture in the UK this summer. like with all of my projects, the construction, maintenance and removal of artwork will be entirely funded by me through the sale of my original works of art. the london mastaba in hyde park will be absolutely free to the public — no tickets, no reservations and no owners. it will belong to everyone (until it’s gone). I am also looking forward to the serpentine gallery exhibition exploring the use of barrels in my works from 1958 to today, which will provide important context for the london mastaba.”

The sculpture will be completed for a launch on June 18, remaining in Serpentine Lake to September 23.The installation coincides with an exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries of work by the artist and his late wife and artistic partner Jeanne-Claude that will focus on the pair’s barrel artworks and will include sculptures, drawings, collages and photographs spanning more than 60 years.

Find more art projects by Christo: www.christojeanneclaude.net

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