When he launched his Projects for Extraterrestrials in 1990, Cai Guo-Qiang was paradoxically a humanist who wanted to symbolically destroy the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. Artist and pyrotechnician, he uses fire both for its creative and destructive characteristics in his Land Art.
The No. 10 is his most important achievement of that phase, and the only one made at that time on Chinese land. The Great Wall acquired the reputation of being the only monument visible from space. Its western end is at the entrance to the Gobi Desert. Cai installs in these dry dunes an undulating trail interspersed with pyrotechnic cartridges, under the title Project to extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 meters.
The happening took place on February 27, 1993 for 40,000 human spectators and an unidentified alien population. The fire takes fifteen minutes to extend over its 10 Km trail, offering in the dusk the vision of an extraordinary dragon.
Same as Christo, Cai makes preparatory drawings and reproductions for the trade. In 2000 the Taipei National Museum of History commissioned a drawing of his Project No. 10 for an exhibition on the Great Wall. This new pyrotechnic happening on ink and gunpowder is performed on five adjacent papers for a total size of 3 x 20 m.
This artwork was sold for HK $ 20.5M including premium by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on October 7, 2007. It returns in the same auction room on March 31, lot 1065 estimated HK $ 15M. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The artificer artist continues to advance his humanist vision. In 2015 he set fire in a superb 80-second happening to a 500-meter ladder rising to the sky, suspended to an invisible weather balloon.
unsold
The No. 10 is his most important achievement of that phase, and the only one made at that time on Chinese land. The Great Wall acquired the reputation of being the only monument visible from space. Its western end is at the entrance to the Gobi Desert. Cai installs in these dry dunes an undulating trail interspersed with pyrotechnic cartridges, under the title Project to extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 meters.
The happening took place on February 27, 1993 for 40,000 human spectators and an unidentified alien population. The fire takes fifteen minutes to extend over its 10 Km trail, offering in the dusk the vision of an extraordinary dragon.
Same as Christo, Cai makes preparatory drawings and reproductions for the trade. In 2000 the Taipei National Museum of History commissioned a drawing of his Project No. 10 for an exhibition on the Great Wall. This new pyrotechnic happening on ink and gunpowder is performed on five adjacent papers for a total size of 3 x 20 m.
This artwork was sold for HK $ 20.5M including premium by Sotheby's in Hong Kong on October 7, 2007. It returns in the same auction room on March 31, lot 1065 estimated HK $ 15M. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The artificer artist continues to advance his humanist vision. In 2015 he set fire in a superb 80-second happening to a 500-meter ladder rising to the sky, suspended to an invisible weather balloon.
unsold
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