A Lost Christo Installation Finally Comes to Life in London

Nearly sixty years after Christo and Jeanne-Claude first conceived the idea, Air Package on a Ceiling enters physical space for the first time.

Its arrival forms the centerpiece of “Christo: Air” at Gagosian London, an exhibition that revisits one of the most revealing threads running through the artists’ practice. Bringing together rare early works, archival materials, and the first realization of the monumental indoor installation, the presentation explores a lifelong fascination with making the invisible tangible. Organized around air as something essential yet ordinarily unseen, the exhibition illuminates ideas that would later expand into some of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s most ambitious interventions, transforming the way audiences experience architecture, landscape, and public space.

Long before wrapping bridges, monuments, coastlines, and civic landmarks, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were investigating how acts of concealment could heighten awareness. Their early experiments with “wrapped air” gave physical presence to something typically imperceptible, inviting viewers to reconsider the relationship between visibility and absence, object and environment, weight and weightlessness. Rather than prescribing meaning, these works create conditions for encounter, allowing perception itself to become the subject.

At the heart of the exhibition, Air Package on a Ceiling transforms the gallery into an immersive environment. Inspired by an idea first conceived in 1968 for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the installation could not be realized at the time due to technical limitations. Suspended just above head height and occupying the full volume of the space, it invites visitors to move beneath and around it, experiencing a shifting interplay of scale, light, movement, and atmosphere. Presented alongside preparatory drawings, collages, and the original model, the installation offers a rare opportunity to consider how an idea conceived decades ago has found new form in the present.

Yet “Christo: Air”is not simply an occasion to revisit the past. Instead, it reveals the enduring vitality of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s thinking, reminding us that some of their most radical investigations emerged not from what could be seen, but from what could be sensed.

To discuss the exhibition, Whitewall spoke with Vladimir Yavachev, Christo’s nephew and the longtime Director of Projects for Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Having worked alongside the artists for decades, Yavachev reflects on the rediscovery of the idea, the transformative power of wrapping, and the extraordinary experience of encountering an installation that finally found its moment nearly sixty years after it was first imagined.

WHITEWALL: Air Package on a Ceiling was conceived in 1968 yet realized for the first time only now. What does it mean for a work to remain conceptually alive across nearly six decades before entering physical space?

VLADIMIR YAVACHEV: Well, with Christo and Jeanne-Claude, a lot of the works were ideas. Some they were persuaded to happen, some not really, and it’s just something they were very used to because these projects take such a long time. Also, somehow, the projects find their own time.

This was something that was long lost as an idea. Lorenzo Giovanelli, who worked with Christo in New York, found the scale model in a long-forgotten place somewhere in the studio. It was a beautiful scale model, and we just said it would be great if we could do it—if it could happen at some point.

Gagosian’s space at Grosvenor Hill was very fitting for that installation, and the gallery had the bravery to do this very minimal show.

Why Wrapping Changes the Way We See

WW: The exhibition is organized around air as something invisible, intangible, and essential. What drew Christo and Jeanne-Claude to the idea of making the immaterial physically perceptible?

VY: Well, it’s not just the immaterial. In general, it’s about revealing an object by hiding it. It’s something that’s very innate to Christo’s work and the interpretation of it.

Usually it’s about the shape of the object that is highlighted. With the Air Package, it’s very nice because all of a sudden you see that air has weight, which we don’t notice and don’t realize. But in that installation, you really feel it.

There was never any symbolism or narrative. They never imposed them. The symbolism is left to the viewer, who can make their own meaning.

“It’s about revealing an object by hiding it.”

Vladimir Yavachev

Because Christo grew up in communist Bulgaria, he was very much against art being used as propaganda. For him, it was about art for art’s sake—the visual aspect of it and the emotional aspect of it—but not a message or a meaning. Everybody is left to make their own message or meaning.

It’s also that we’re so used to air. It’s something we don’t see, don’t touch, and don’t feel. In this way, it has a physical presence, which is very nice.

WW: In the early “wrapped air” works, meaning seems to emerge less from the object itself than from the act of containment. How did this idea shape the evolution of their later environmental interventions?

VY: It’s really the act of wrapping in general that transforms the perception of the object or the place.

Christo started with wrapping cans simply because they were small and easy to transport, and then it transferred into different things, such as wrapping the coastline in Australia and the Pont Neuf in Paris.      

It’s really about giving texture and giving breath to these structures, making them more present in a way. People pass by the Pont Neuf or the Reichstag all the time, and they’re so used to them that nobody pays attention. But when it’s wrapped—especially because the fabric gives this nomadic feel and this sense of liveliness because it moves with the wind and breathes—people walk by and start touching the Reichstag or the bridge.

Even with the Gagosian space, people touch the Air Package. You don’t see people walking around Berlin or Paris touching buildings. It brings a different physicality to them.

You’re attracted by the secret of it. You’re attracted by what’s behind it. It’s a very human and very normal thing.

The Body in Space

WW: Air Package on a Ceiling transforms the gallery into something both architectural and atmospheric. How important was bodily movement and spatial perception within Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s understanding of sculpture?

VY: It’s very fundamental.

Christo was as interested in architecture as he was in structural art. That’s the whole point of it—you are invited to move through it. You can make your own path, your own course through it.

Again, it’s something that moves, something that invites you. Sometimes it’s restrictive. You try to push through it mentally. It’s very important.

With Air Package on a Ceiling, it’s almost like building a cloud in the room. All of a sudden, it becomes very physical.

For Christo and Jeanne-Claude, it was so important to look at every angle, every possible viewpoint, because it’s a three-dimensional object. It’s not like a painting that you stand in front of. It’s a three-dimensional object, so you have so many viewpoints and so many different angles.

It changes so much with the light. This can bring different emotions in different ways, depending even on the time of day.

From Blueprint to Reality

WW: The exhibition includes archival models, drawings, and collages tracing the evolution of this indoor installation inspired by an unrealized idea. What do these materials reveal about the journey of Air Package on a Ceiling from concept to built environment?

VY: This is what we call the blueprint. It’s what we use to make it look as close as possible to Christo’s vision.

With Air Package on a Ceiling, we have this amazing scale model, and when we were doing the installation, we tried to get it as close as possible to that scale model.

These materials are the blueprint we use. Of course, they’re also preparatory works that Christo made before an installation or a project. They help clarify his vision.

We simply try to follow these instructions as closely as possible. When you see the show, the scale model is in the same room as the Air Package, and you can compare them directly and see how  similar they are to one another. For us, it was pretty close.

When an Idea Finally Breathes

WW: After so many years working closely with Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects, what was most striking or moving for you personally about finally encountering this unrealized work in physical form?

VY: For me, it’s that the work remains contemporary. It’s still alive.

I think that’s the most important thing—that it stays so contemporary, so modern, and so relevant. Of course, I’m very biased, so it’s not easy for me to be objective.

But the thing I love most is that you almost feel like the room is breathing. Not just the Air Package on the ceiling, but the whole room.

You don’t get that feeling from the static drawings or even from the scale model. There’s this very slight movement that’s there—you don’t really see it, but you feel it. That’s the thing I feel most strongly about.

“The thing I love most is that you almost feel like the room is breathing.”

Vladimir Yavachev