Wrapped Globe (Eurasian Hemisphere) 2019

Highly explosive in our days is the "Wrapped Globe (Eurasian Hemisphere)" of 2019, one of the last major collaged graphics of the artist. Back in 1989, Christo wrapped a globe for a cover of the prestigious TIME Magazine, replacing even then the usual "Person of the Year" with an urgent wake-up call to society. The Earth, literally set in the sand against a blood-red evening sky, was already a visionary statement by the great artist 30 years ago. After 30 years, Christo revisits this red-hot theme of a threatened environment and endangered earth in the collage opposite. Wrapped in a semi-transparent foil and tightly laced with light-colored threads, the globe - a reproduction of a globe from the 1960s with Europe and Asia in focus - rests on the back of a female nude who is also part of an old photograph. Unlike the obvious association to the mythological model of Atlas' shoulders, the interpretation of the globe on the back of modern man remains open: Is it resting stably or is it threatening to roll off? It could slip away from us or remain in this position for another earth age - we, humanity, are already at the crossroads to determine this fragile interplay between drifting away and permanence for further generations.
Christo covers the globe and interprets one of the central themes of our time in a very personal way in a last great visionary masterpiece: the vulnerability of our earth.