Christo’s “Floating Piers”: a walk on water on Lake Iseo, Italy

February 29, 2016

Bulgarian artist Christo has many, many plans: “I became 80 years old in 2015, so now I like to do things very fast,” he said at the opening of Galerie Gmurzynska’s current exhibition of his works-in-progress in St Moritz, where drawings of the Floating Piers project are on view until March 30th.

But Floating Piers will be a 100% Italian masterpiece: coinciding with the summer solstice on Lake Iseo, Northern Italy, the work will consist of 70,000 square metres of yellow fabric forming a 3km walkway across Lake Iseo, from Sulzano to Monte Isola to the smaller island of San Paolo.

Critic and curator Germano Celant, artistic director of the Prada Foundation, has collaborated with Christo to make his first project in Italy in the last 40 years come true.

A self-proclaimed environmental artist, by lack of a better definition, Christo had slowed down his work since the death of his wife and artistic collaborator Jeanne-Claude in 2009, but is now back in full force and Floating Piers will be realized on June 18.

An incredibile environmental performance that will leave residents and tourists with their mouth wide open.

Floating Piers was first conceptualized in the early Seventies, but failed to get permissions both in Rio de la Plata, Argentina, and Tokyo Bay. Luckily for Italians and Italy-lovers, the same permission was granted in the Iseo area.

Christo defines his project as “a walk on the water”: Floating Piers comprises 220,000 weighted floating cubes wrapped in fabric that will create a walkway between the Monte Isola island in the Lake Iseo and the mainland. A sort of “bridge” (which normally does not exist) where residents and tourist will be able to walk for 1,5 kilometers.

According to Christo, his projects “are not impossible things, they are technically very simple, they are not electronic, they are very manual, but that's where the difficulties lie. The biggest part is to put people together because this project is done with a huge group, from lawyers to engineers and fabricators. Even after all this is installed, we need 600 non-skilled workers to install the fabric.”

Lake Iseo will have an amazing ouverture, next summer. Why don’t you plan a beautiful luxury vacation in the area and fully enjoy the spectacular Floating Piers?

Take a look at our luxury villas for rent.

Picture: Christo, The Floating Piers (2014).

These are just some of our luxury properties in Italy that are available for weekly rentals: do not hesitate to contact us for any request!

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