Running Fence

Running fence is a documentary set in the U.S in the late 70's, the concept was to follow Christo and his wife Jeanne Claude on their adventure of installing their art piece by the name of " Running Fence". The idea behind the project was to get the families of the land that the fence crossed together. This 18 ft. high, 25 miles long fence was made out of fabric and grounded by poles. The fence went through fields and farm lands of many locals and for them to do that , they had to take permission from these locals to build the fence across their lands. It took them 4 and a half years to prepare, months to install and it only lasted 14 days before it got removed.

It was a huge struggle fore the artist to get 59 contracts signed and to fight groups of people who were against it, but the passion that they had for that project made them stick with it all the way through.

After the project was over and done with, they made an exhibiton displaying pictures of their adventure and their piece of art across the lands and the ranchers of those lands traveled far to that exhibition just to see what they were a part of. That alone made the artists very satisfied with themselves.

In my opinion, although the concept of the project was to bring the people of thew ranches together, it had brought more harm than good. It raised contraversy which can sometimes be a good thing but with this project it pushed people to undergo years meetings of arguments around it which only lasted 14 days.

I am all for freedom of expression but at the same time i think even that freedom has boundaries when it comes to crossing other people's space not to mention their beliefs.

link:

http://genevaanderson.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/the-running-fence-at-33-an-extended-family-gathers-weve-all-gotten-a-lot-older/