Jan 31st, 2018 : Big Art
 

I can’t figure out how the people who do huge art “installations” make a living.
Stuff that’s too big for a gallery or even a museum, is too big for a home so the chances selling it is somewhere between slim and none.
Does it boost their reputation, so they can sell smaller works, enough to justify the cost?
Maybe for Ai Weiwei as he does small saleable things too, but what about island wrapping Christo?

Le Bon Marché department store in Paris has a well known escalator atrium.

http://cellar.org/2017/escalator1.jpg

The store invited Leandro Erlich, an artist known for employing optical illusions in his work, to create several installations.
Most striking is making its well known escalator look as twisted as a pretzel.

http://cellar.org/2017/escalator2.jpg

I guess they may have paid him?

link

They definitely paid him, or else a public arts grant paid him. Often they hold a submission contest where artists pitch their designs, but in the case of famous folks they just approach them and commission directly. When it comes to lower-level installations from no-name artists at plain old galleries, though, I don't know.