Mastaba London – Christo & Jeanne Claude
The London Mastaba was Christo’s first major public outdoor artwork in the UK—a monumental, temporary sculpture floating on the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park. Comprising 7,506 custom-fabricated barrels, the piece stood 20 meters high, 30 meters wide, and 40 meters long, evoking the ancient form of a mastaba with its slanted walls and flat top.
The barrels—painted in vivid reds, blues, mauves, and whites—transformed the surface of the lake into a striking composition of color and geometry, animated by changing light and reflections. First conceptualized in the late 1960s, the project realized Christo’s long-standing ambition to create a floating mastaba.
The installation coincided with a retrospective at the Serpentine Galleries (June 19 – September 9, 2018), showcasing over 60 years of work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, including their recurring use of barrels as artistic modules.
