Arty Farty Fri: Gemini Twins: Christo & Jeanne-Claude

A pair of artists with Sun in Gemini who were astrological twins, and married too: Christo & Jean-Claude, creators of environmental art. Full names: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon.



Jean-Claude sadly died in 2009. Both were born on 13 June 1935, he in Bulgaria, she in Morocco. A matched pair. Their story is told, briefly in an obituary for Jeanne-Claude, by Christopher Turner in The Guardian, here

SNIP

Their relationship lasted 51 years, and they did everything together, Jeanne-Claude said, except three things: "We never fly on the same airplane… I do not draw. Christo is the one who puts on paper our ideas… And I have always deprived him of the joy of working with our accountant." She described their union as passionate and volatile. "We are terribly argumentative and scream and criticise each other non-stop," she admitted. "It is very helpful. It makes us think. Christo is right 75% of the time."

Samples of their work~
The Wrapping of the Reichstag (former German parliament building)



Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado.



Video showing some of their work from the air -

In an interview, fully detailed at a website here the pair explained to the interviewer the thinking/philosophy behind the fleeting nature of their huge works of art which take so long to plan and bring to fruition but remain in view for such a short time. I found this interesting:

SNIP:

Mantegna: Can you tell me more about the element of time in your projects?

Christo: ..... I and Jeanne-Claude would like our projects to challenge and question the people's notion of art. The temporal character of the project challenges the immortality of art. Is art immortal? Is art forever? Is building things in gold and silver and stones to be remembered forever? It is a kind of naiveté and arrogance to think that this thing stays forever, for eternity. It probably takes greater courage to go away than to stay.

All these projects have this strong dimension of missing, of self-effacement, that they will go away, like our childhood. our life. They create a tremendous intensity when they are there for a few days. When they are there for 14 days, they create an urgency and sympathy because they are going to go away, they will disappear. All this is translated into a nomadic quality, like the tribes in the Sahara and Tibet. It is translated by the biggest amount of material in this project. This project has fabric, ropes, steel, aluminum, but the biggest amount is the fabric, the cloth. The cloth is the principal element to translate the vulnerability, the temporariness and the fragility of the work, very much like a nomadic tribe that moves through the desert. They fold their tents and overnight they could build an entire village and the next day they would be gone. This is why this project is prepared off-site for several months, but the final installation is a very fast, very fresh operation. It happens at once, like the Umbrellas that opened in a matter of a few hours and the whole project was completed. But, at the very bottom, immortality is linked with a very essential part of this project.

All these projects are about freedom. They happen not because some president of the country liked them, some minister of culture, or some corporate executive or some major of a city; these project happened because the artist liked to have them and, of course, they have this incredible proportion and presence. Nobody can own this project, nobody can buy the project, nobody can possess the project, or charge tickets. This project is a demonstration of freedom. A demonstration of absolute freedom and total irrationality. The world can live without Umbrellas, without Valley Curtain or Running Fence. They have no other reason to be there except poetical creativity, total creativity. That freedom is the most important part of this project and this is why they cannot stay, because freedom is the enemy of possession and possession is equal to permanence …

Jeanne-Claude: … Possession is equal to permanence, so freedom is the enemy of permanence.

Christo: Of course, to keep that freedom to exist absolute, we pay for our projects. No strings attached, no bowing to anybody, no sponsors, no compromises …

Jeanne-Claude: It is very expensive to be free …

Jeanne-Claude: Did we explain that we recycle all the material used in every project? We don't reuse it, of course, but is reused by other people for other purposes, industrial, agricultural , or ecological use, like in sandbags to contain the floods of a river. For instance, the aluminum of the Umbrellas, which was a big part of the cost of the project, today has been melted, there are no Umbrellas and the aluminum is probably part of an airplane flying in the sky, or a can of Ginger Ale.

ASTROLOGY

Christo, born 13 June 1935 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, at 10.00 pm (data from astro.com)

Jeanne-Claude born 13 June 1935 in Casablanca, Morocco, at 6.00 pm (data from astro.com)

Hmmm - it's hard to know what to say about this! But it's nice to know that two individuals so similar in nature managed to sustain such a long and loving relationship. It's often the differences that cause a spark between two people, here any difference relies on rising sign and house position. That indicates Christo's Capricorn rising reflected a somewhat steadier, businesslike nature, while Jeanne-Claude's Sagittarius rising was more adventurous, risk-taking and lively overall. Another factor could be that their charts are of the "splash pattern" variety - no excess of emphasis anywhere, leaving lots of leeway for a variety of moods, interests and ideas. Two people with "bundle" charts with planets squeezed into just three or four signs - the same three or four signs, might not fare so well together - just a thought.

As for the unusual style they were drawn to in their artworks - where's an indication of that in the charts? I look first to Uranus (eccentricity, the unusual) and find it in challenging square to Venus planet of the arts - Uranus could be seen to be saying to Venus, "Come on....do something different!" There's Neptune (imagination, creativity) opposing Saturn - here Neptune's imagination was itching to do something to solid traditional Saturn - like wrapping it in oodles of coloured fabric?

Their natal Moon conjunct expansive Jupiter in Scorpio speaks of big ideas involving some kind of transformation.