Six-hundred workers have begun installing “The Gates,” a $20 million (and counting) ephemeral artwork designed for Central Park by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

In all, there are 7,500 “Gates.” Each is 16 feet high with a width varying from 5 feet, 6 inches to 18 feet. The horizontal unit carries a mysterious cocoon stuffed with saffron-colored vinyl material.

Come Saturday, the radiant saffron “drapes” will drop from their cocoons to flutter over strollers’ heads along 23 miles of footpaths in the park. The panels undulate about 7 feet above the ground, clearing everything but National Basketball Association elite.

Like all of the couple’s projects, “The Gates” is temporary. After 16 days, it will vanish, leaving no physical trace. The innate paradox of immensity and transience provides its own pleasures of the mind and memory. Once witnessed, these projects are impossible to forget and live on forever in your head.

“The Gates” – first proposed for the city nearly 25 years ago – is modest compared to previous projects. The Christos like to work with the earth, the sky, and sometimes the sea. Off Miami in 1983, they surrounded some scraggly islands with pink fabric that transformed them into lily pads.

Their 1976 white “Running Fence,” which traversed several California counties before slipping into the ocean, looked like a ghostly ribbon dropped by an unseen hand. In Berlin, the 1995 “Wrapped Reichstag” evoked the dark, unventilated lies embodied by that burned emblem of Nazi power.

The Christos (he is Bulgarian-born, she is French) have been living in the same crummy building in Lower Manhattan for decades. They pay for their projects and all the workers. They take no government handouts and accept no corporate sponsorship. His preparatory drawings and paintings finance the projects; her organizational zeal makes them happen. The team of Vince Davenport, chief engineer and director of construction, and Jonita Davenport, project director, get them built on time.

Don’t even begin the old yaw about hungry infants. This is how they spend their money. Enjoy it.

Jeanne-Claude spoke to Bloomberg News’s Manuela Hoelterhoff last Saturday night from their loft in Lower Manhattan.

Q: What happened today?

A: Today we woke at 5:45, same as yesterday and the day before. This weekend, we trained the 600 installation workers, at our assemblage plant in Queens that we rented. The 600 are in teams of eight, all wearing “Gates” uniforms designed by Christo.

Which look like?

That’s a secret until Monday. We went back to the studio, then returned by 12:30 for the afternoon training. On Monday, they will start installing the vinyl poles. Each team of eight is in charge of their 100 gates.

What does a single gate consist of?

A gate consists of two vertical poles 16 feet long and one horizontal pole, which are of different lengths. Around that horizontal part is the closed cocoon which contains the fabric panels which are not to be opened until the morning of Saturday starting at 8:45.

And then? Trumpets?

No. We wait until then because the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, will open the first one at 8:45, followed by the others throughout the park.

You and Christo have lived in New York for 41 years. You first proposed a project for Central Park almost 25 years. What happened?

It was refused by the parks commissioner, Gordon Davis, in 1981 in a fat book of 140 pages. We never applied again. The book is part of the “Gates” documentation. Reasons? They ranged from worrying that we would hurt the park to stating that the park already is a work of art.

When we went to the inauguration of Mr. Bloomberg, Christo and I as we were walking home, said to each other: “We are not going to bother Michael Bloomberg until June.” We didn’t have to. In March, we received a telephone call from [Deputy Mayor for Administration] Patricia Harris asking if she could pay us a visit and bring with her Adrian Benepe [the parks commissioner] and Douglas Blonsky [the Central Park Conservancy’s president]. By January 2003 we had a contract, which, in contrast, was just 43 pages long.

How did the project change?

The first drawing dates to 1979 and the title is “The 1000 Gates.” The poles were skinny and 12 feet tall. The fabric was yoked to a cable and about as elegant as a shower curtain. We evolved, matured. So did the project. The color was saffron then, too, but was more timid.

Why this time of year?

In February, there are no leaves on the branches. We can count on that. And you can see the park, the architecture, and the work of art.

Where does the name come from?

From the two men who made the park, Vaux and Olmsted. They surrounded Central Park with a stone wall so you can’t just enter from the sidewalk. You have to find an entrance. Olmsted called these “Gates.” Steel gates were designed for each opening to lock the park at night. But then Olmsted saw the designs, he hated them and they were never put up.

Now the name seems to suggest entry, passage, movement from one world to another.

Yes, and that is also intended.

Did you also expect the blizzard that buried the city and park just as you were starting work on the bases? Since all your projects are out of doors, I wonder if you carry special insurance against subversive acts by the weather goddess?

No, though we carry high liability insurance. The snowstorm cost us $250,000, but it was built in. By which I don’t mean we ordered it up. We just calculated the possibility.

Any overruns, surprises?

Until two months ago, we hoped it would not go beyond $20 million. Now we say beyond $21 million. For instance, we are the proud owners of 31 forklifts, more than we had planned. And we ended up having to have a flagman in front and one in back of each for lift, meaning 100 more people.

Rain is threatened for the end of the week. How does that affect matters?

We always say: weather permitting. What does that mean? A gentle rain or snow, it doesn’t matter to us, but since what we are creating is a work of joy and beauty, it must be so also for our workers. We won’t ask them to work in horrible weather.