Christo’s Floating Piers is a reality: you can now walk on water in Italy

Thanks to Christo’s work of art “Floating Piers” you can now actually walk on water in Italy. The new installation by renowned artist Christo Vladimiro Javacheff opened in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, northern Italy, ten days ago: a 3 kilometer-long runway made of 200,000 floating cubes on the water of Lake Iseo. The pier literally connects the village of Sulzano to the small island of Monte Isola.

The Floating Piers will be open to public until July 3 and is already extremely successful, with thousands of visitors waiting in line to walk a few inches away from the waters of the lake.

Christo commented: “It’s a very physical project, you need to go there to understand it”. The audience seems to have taken his words very seriously, and to further appreciate the material sensation of the piers, many visitors decide to remove their shoes. Others seem to love the sunbathing on the pontoons while the bravest souls even dive head firs into Iseo’s dark green water, since summer has finally arrived in Italy and the temperature are currently very pleasurable.

In any event, around 150 people were posted on the walkway to ensure safety while 30 lifeguards were on hand in the event of an accident.

In terms of expectance, The Floating Piers will probably reach an audience of half a million people before July 3: everybody is in love with the bright orange fabric connecting over 200,000 floating cubes, creating a triangular dock on the dark waters of the lake. We can’t really blame them!

Picture: AFP/Marco Bertorello. Source:AFP