For 16 days Italy’s Lake Iseo will be reimagined. 100,000 square meters of shimmering yellow fabric, carried by a modular floating dock system of 220,000 high-density poly-ethylene cubes, will undulate with the movement of the waves as The Floating Piers rise just above the surface of the water.
In the spring and summer of 2014, Christo, Vladimir Yavachev - Operations Director, Wolfgang Volz - Project Manager, and Josy Kraft - Registrar/Curator, scouted the lakes of Northern Italy. Along with Project Director Germano Celant, they found Lake Iseo to be the most inspiring location. Lake Iseo is located 100 kilometers east of Milan and 200 kilometers west of Venice. A 3-kilometer-long walkway will be created as The Floating Piers extend across the water of Lake Iseo. Visitors will experience this work of art by walking on it from Sulzano to Monte Isola and to the island of San Paolo, which is framed by The Floating Piers.
The piers will be 16 meters wide and approximately 35 centimeters high with sloping sides. The fabric will continue along 1.5 kilometers of pedestrian streets in Sulzano and Peschiera Maraglio.
The Floating Piers will be the artists' first large scale project since Christo and Jeanne-Claude realized The Gates in 2005. As with all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects, The Floating Piers will be funded entirely through the sale of Christo’s original works of art. After the 16-day exhibition, all components will be removed and industrially recycled. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have a long history of creating projects in Italy: Wrapped Fountain and Wrapped Medieval Tower in Spoleto, 1968; Wrapped Monuments in Milan, 1970; and The Wall – Wrapped Roman Wall in Rome, 1973–74.
