1.
GV Rifle gap
0.07

2.
GV Curtain suspended above gap
0.08

3.
CU Artist
0.10

4.
GV Rockface TILT DOWN TO workers
0.13

5.
SV Engineers at work (5 shots)
0.28

6.
GV & SV Curtain suspended between peaks
0.32

7.
CU Winch wheel
0.35

8.
GV Curtain in position
0.38

9.
SV & GV PAN Curtain unfurled by wind (3 shots)
0.48

10.
CU Woman watching
0.51

11.
SV & CU Curtain billowing and tearing on rocks (3 shots)
1.03

12.
SV Ranchers herding cattle beneath curtain (4 shots)
1.14

13.
GV Curtain
1.19

14.
SV Artist looking perplexed
1.31



Initials OS/2140 OS/2158


original colour on 12191/71 74ft

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Nature proved too much for Art on Monday (11 October) at Rifle, a pass in the western Colorado mountains in the USA. Gusty winds stopped a work crew trying to hang a 1,250-foot-long (375 metres) nylon curtain across the pass.

The bright orange curtain, a work of art conceived by Bulgarian-born Christo Javacheff, was to be hung on steel cables across the gap. The project, estimated cost GBP104,000 (250 thousand dollars), folded after seventeen men spent three days trying to beat the wind. Parts of the curtain were torn to shreds.

SYNOPSIS: Rifle gap, a pass in the dramatic western Colorado mountains, as nature made it...and as art would have it.

The Artist, Christo Javacheff, born in Bulgaria. His plan was to hang a 1,250-foot-long nylon curtain across Rifle Pass. Seventeen men spent three days trying to suspend the orange curtain on steel cables across the Gap.

Part of the curtain made it.

The dream of the artist, at a cost of over 100,000 pounds sterling, was revealed for a short moment.

But the wind, against which the workers had been fighting for three days, finally won. It caught in the folds of the curtain, billowed out and finally tore parts of the curtain.

Nothing could be done but watch as the curtain tore on the rocks and billowed in the 25-mile an hour wind. The curtain was to have had a notch in it to permit traffic to drive along Colorado highway 325, which runs across the gap. But it could have frightened drivers as much as it did cattle....
The curtain was described as the most ambitious project so far by Christo. He had the backing of about 40 art patrons, galleries and museums in the US and in Europe. Looking rather sad, Christo said he may try again next year.