Christo’s "Over the River" Obstructed by Legal Challenges
August 2, 2012
“Over The River” is a temporary work of art, still in progress, by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009), akin to their “The Gates” “Running Fence” and other site-specific large scale projects designed to look at familiar landscapes through a prism. It envisions suspending 5.9 miles of silvery fabric panels above the Arkansas River along a 42-mile stretch of the river between Salida and Cañon City in south-central Colorado. As many other projects, this one is requiring permits to install equipment and Christo is fighting multiple legal battles to move the project forward. Just last month, a US judge ordered that “no construction of the project may proceed until a legal challenge against the work has concluded.”
The Art Newspaper reported of two separate legal challenges against Christo’s plan, including a challenge by an organisation called Roar (Rags Over the Arkansas River), which is seeking to thwart the installation due to environmental concerns. Tentative opening date for the project is August 2015 but with the recent decision the installation may take longer to complete. “The Gates” project in Central Park was 25 years in the making.
