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World's biggest sculpture to come up in Abu
Dhabi
Monday November 26, 2012 06:35:59 PM,
IANS
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London: Christo
Javacheff is an artist renowned for wrapping the Reichstag in
fabric, but his latest project 'Mastaba', the world's largest
permanent sculpture to be built in Abu Dhabi will be much bigger
in scale and rival Egypt's pyramids.
The flat-topped pyramid, estimated to cost pound 212 million, will
be 492 feet high -- just taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza and
three times the height of Nelson's Column.
It is intended to be a landmark for Abu Dhabi in the desert, in
the same way the pyramids are for Egypt and the Eiffel Tower is to
Paris, with two million visitors expected annually.
Inspired by the colourful sands of the desert, Bulgaria-born
Christo, 74, and his late wife Jeanne-Claude first envisaged the
project about 30 years ago. But its completion has been delayed by
various conflicts in the region.
The United Arab Emirates rulers have approved a site near Liwa
oasis close to the border with Oman in the south-east of the
country.
The region is home to some of the highest sand dunes in the middle
east and the yellow and red colours in the sand have inspired the
design, the Daily Mail reports.
"When the sun rises, the vertical wall will become almost full of
gold," Christo said. The artist is collaborating with Sheikh
Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nayhan, the crown prince's elder brother, with
the royal family "very excited to realise the project".
The sculpture has been inspired by Islamic architecture. "When
Louis XIV was building that kitschy castle Versailles, the
greatest architecture in the Middle East had incredible
simplicity... and play with colours," said Christo.
Construction of Mastaba will take 30 months, with hundreds of
labourers involved. A German company has been commissioned to
supply the coloured barrels.
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