Making the Floating Piers
Christo’s personal project book with original artwork Wrapped Book
Limited Art Edition of 20 copies (No. 1–20) plus 20 Artist’s Proofs (No. I–XX), with Wrapped Book, 2017, signed and numbered in pencil by the artist, 32 x 30 x 8 cm (12.6 x 11.8 x 3.1 in.)
From June 18 to July 3, 2016, 100 kilometers east of Milan and 200 kilometers west of Venice,
The Floating Piers by
Christo and Jeanne-Claude allowed
1.2 million people to walk on water. The project, comprising 100,000 square meters of shimmering saffron fabric atop a modular floating dock system of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes, created a
three-kilometer walkway across the surface of Lake Iseo, connecting the mainland to the islands of Monte Isola and San Paolo.
“It is all about walking,” said Christo of the project. “Including the stretches on the land, you have to walk five kilometers to appreciate the project,
the constantly changing views, the lake, the mountains, the other visitors. All these things together are the final artwork.” The experience was as tactile as it was visual, a multisensory wonder of undulating fabric, shimmering yellow, and ever-shifting light upon the water.
In this personal project book
, signed and designed by Christo himself, the artist presents this extraordinary environmental work from start to finish. On
846 pages, he reveals the couple’s earliest concept of a floating surface on water back in 1970 through renewed interest in the project, research into possible locations, technical developments, material production, and the
final 16-day experience with enraptured visitors from around the world.
This limited
Art Edition combines the project book with a
24 x 24 cm swatch of the project’s original dahlia yellow fabric as well the extraordinary
artwork, Wrapped Book. In the celebrated wrapping tradition of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, this
extremely rare piece nods to the artists’
wrapped objects and packages of the 1950s and ’60s as well as their larger scale wrapping projects around the globe, including
Wrapped Reichstag and
Wrapped Trees. Crafted in mustard-colored tarpaulin, it evokes both the Italian tradition of
arte povera as well as the waterborne nature of
The Floating Piers.
The artist
Christo and Jeanne-Claude began their collaboration in 1961, and lived in New York City since 1964. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009; Christo died in 2020. Their large-scale projects include Wrapped Coast, Australia, 1968–69; Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72; Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972–76; Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Florida, 1980–83; The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975–85; The Umbrellas, Japan–USA, 1984–91; Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971–95; Wrapped Trees, Riehen, Switzerland, 1997–98; The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979–2005; The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014–16 and The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, 2016–18. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's temporary work of art L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Project for Paris is scheduled for September 18–October 3, 2021.
The photographer
Wolfgang Volz has worked with Christo and Jeanne-Claude as the exclusive photographer of their works since 1971. He was also project director (with Roland Specker) for Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971–95 and (with Josy Kraft) for Wrapped Trees, Riehen, Switzerland, 1997–98, and was in charge of The Wall – 13,000 Oil Barrels, Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany, 1998–99 and Big Air Package, Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany, 2010–13. His close collaboration has resulted in many books and more than 300 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
The Floating Piers.
Art Edition No. 1–20 (Wrapped Book)
Edition of 20
Original artwork in tarpaulin, 12.6 x 11.8 x 3.1 in., accompanied by hardcover volume in slipcase, 11.4 x 10.6 in., with piece of original project fabric, 846 pages
