Behind the scenes:

August 31, 2016By 3

“William” Tell Comes to New York

I hope you were excited about the project I described in my previous blog and amused at the same time. To see the end result is one thing, but being able to look behind the scene is something else.

So you got to know Gerry Hofstetter a little bit better from the blog I sent a few weeks ago. Maybe you watched one of his videos on YouTube. I mentioned before, it’s great to be around artists. Gerry is one, and when it comes to the realization of his dreams and ideas, he acts like an engineer. Every detail is thought through with the skill of an artist, but with the execution of an engineer.

How did Wilhelm Tell come to New York?

A long story short: Roland Veit and Alex Schibli bought this tiny island in New York a few years ago. They are both Swiss. It is the only island in NY that belongs to “foreigners”. Swiss TV made a documentary of Roland Veit because he is a successful businessman in the coffee business in New York. During the interview they talked about the island. Henry Maurer, one of Gerry’s videographers, saw it on Swiss TV and went to Gerry at once and wanted Gerry to see it too. At that moment, Gerry realized he wanted to have Wilhelm Tell on the Island. He wanted to have Tell shooting the apple from his son’s head and he wanted it in ‘The Big Apple’.

And that’s how it all started. First Gerry had to find somebody to replicate the monument, and then he needed a permit to erect it. That was in February this year.

Most of you wouldn’t even try to do this. Knowing the New York City bureaucracy, you would say “forget it”.

But Alex Schibli, who knew the system, managed to get this done. As I mentioned before, the building department can not give you a permit where there is no address. So Alex gave it an address: “1291 Wilhelm Tell Square” (1291 for the year Switzerland was founded ). That helped expedite the process. In the meantime Wilhelm Tell was built. And Swiss Airline was ready to bring him over. From JFK, Tell was brought to City Island. That’s where I come in.

On Tuesday before the unveiling of the statue, I drove to City Island and helped to lift the still wrapped-up Tell onto a wooden raft. Just like when he was on a raft in rough water on the lake of Uri on November 18, 1307, we drove Tell to his final destination. It was here where we secured him and then left the island.

On Thursday Gerry, his daughter Celine, and Henry, the videographer arrived. We took a small boat out to the island. For all of them it was love at first sight. We were greeted by the American and Swiss flags. On the island a crew of 8, all nationalities, were ready to lift Tell onto the platform. When Tell was standing and we put our hand up for a oath to be free, they did it with us and this small island was suddenly a place of spirit and excitement.

Later that night we went back to the island and Gerry put up his projectors for which he is famous. He lit Tell in different images – lit up against the dark sky it was one of those moments where you just inhale what you see. We didn’t talk , we just looked. It was very special.
The sky was pitch dark, and you could see the millions of stars high above. A shooting star and our small boat brought us back, and we celebrated the day with a drink, looking forward to the official celebration.

Click Image to View Slideshow

Click Image to View Slideshow

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