He lost the ‘cloud’ of artists that wrapped the Reichstag to be created in a gallery in the UK | Christ

Christo once wrapped the Reichstag, suspended a curtain across the Colorado Valley and covered the Pont Neuf in Paris. Now, six years after the artist’s death, a London museum is preparing a large-scale installation of his work in 1968, using detailed models and drawings that were thought to be lost until their opportunity was found.

Christo envisioned a transparent, illuminated interior, like a cloud, but technical difficulties prevented this plan from being realized.

The Air on the Ceiling package was created for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Now his first realization will fill the Gagosian theater London in collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.

The piece will fill the entire space – 16 meters long, 10 meters wide – down to head level.

Serena Cattaneo Adorno, director of the Gagosian Foundation, said: “Architecture is spatial, it forces visitors to move around and below.”

He added: “This exhibition has brought to life a work that has existed for many years as an idea.

The original plans were discovered by Lorenza Giovanelli, who joined Christo’s team in 2017 as his studio manager. As he was making more room in the busy studio, he moved a large room and suddenly saw a box inside. To his surprise, it had a detailed picture of the Air Package on the Ceiling, mocked up in a museum with electrical wiring to show the work lighting.

His presence in 2018 was not disclosed, and Christo He died in 2020. He remembered his excitement as he had already forgotten to put it on the tower and moved on to other tasks. He said: “It is in very good condition because it has never seen sunlight, there was not even dust…

He said: “It will look like a beautiful cloud, lit from within, hanging from the ceiling of the museum… It will be very magical…

“I hope people will find it very beautiful.”

Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, are well known for their ancient artworks that transform spaces using everyday materials. This is how their work was so difficult that it took many years to prepare but it lasted only a short time before it was dismantled and repaired.

It was in the 1960s that Christo explored the idea of ​​wrapping air, sealed inside transparent polyethylene sheets tied with string. It was pictured after it worked on the environment.

Gagosian’s exhibition will include various works on the theme of air – “invisible, invisible and essential”. Giovanelli said about the artist: “He was full of ideas, full of energy, full of life … He was not too worried about people not understanding the work.

Vladimir Yavachev, Christo’s nephew, who worked with the artist during his lifetime, said of the Air Package on the Ceiling plans: “It’s a very accurate painting…

He added that, by making it look like a painting, he would recreate Christo’s vision.

• The exhibition will be held from 21 May to 21 August at Gagosian London, 20 Grosvenor Hilland, w1