Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Floating Piers (Limited Edition)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Floating Piers

US$ 1,000

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 dahlia yellow fabric above 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 Collector’s Edition (No. 161–1,000), 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 tranquil waters 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. To round off this unique project book and privileged insight into Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s practice, the volume includes a swatch of the project’s original dahlia yellow fabric.

Limited Collector's Edition of 840 copies signed by Christo and Wolfgang Volz, each with a 24 x 24 cm swatch of The Floating Piers’ original dahlia yellow fabric.

Also available as four different Limited Art Editions, each with a separate project book signed by Christo and Wolfgang Volz.

The artist

Christo and Jeanne-Claude began their collaboration in 1961, and have lived in New York City since 1964. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009. 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; and The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014–16.

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 and (with Josy Kraft) for Wrapped Trees, 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.

The contributing author

Germano Celant, renowned art historian and theoretician, author and curator, is internationally acknowledged for his theories on Arte Povera. He is the Artistic and Scientific Superintendent of Fondazione Prada, as well as the Curator of Fondazione Aldo Rossi, Milan, and Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venice. In 2016, he was the Project Director of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Floating Piers, at Lago d’Iseo, Italy.

The author

Adam Blackbourn has been a member of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s working family since 2006. In addition to his work as an artist and writer, he and his partner Ruei Ji run the Chinese-to-English translation studio Bacon Translations. He has collaborated on numerous publications about Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Floating Piers

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wolfgang Volz, Germano Celant, Adam Blackbourn

Hardcover in slipcase with piece of fabric and six fold-out pages, 11.4 x 10.6 in., 846 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-4787-1
Multilingual Edition: English, Italian

Other editions

“Art that lets you walk on water.”

— The New York Times
„It’s a must-read for all fans of art and architecture. It’s probably sold out in seconds.“

— Museumlifestyle.com
“A veritable making-of, from conceptualization to completion.”

— Architectures CREE, Paris