Conceptual art, landscape art, environmental interventions in nature. It is difficult to provide an exhaustive definition of Christo, bulgarian artist who has been creating spectacular and provocative site-specific installations worldwide for over fifty years.
His huge temporary installations never conflict with surroundings, but highlight the meaning by covering architecture and natural elements present in fabrics and plastics. Over the years Christo and his partner Jeanne-Claude, deceased in 2009, have made great installations on beaches, cliffs, valleys and trees as well as important monuments like the Pont Neuf in Paris and The Reichstag Building in Berlin. By disseminating objects artists create a strong and colourful visual impact, trigger questions about the nature of art, and give the feeling of tenderness and thrill. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always seen value in momentary experiences, those that raise positive uncertainty and highlight brevity, like childhood and the life itself, and have transferred these values by creating expressive art designed to end.
The Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia presents an exhibition curated by Germano Celant in collaboration with the artist and his studio. For the first time the exhibition focuses on the water-related projects of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and displays original drawings and collages, scale models, photographs of completed projects, videos and films documenting the history of monumental works from the early sixties to today.
The exhibition complements the environmental installation, The Floating Piers, on Lake Iseo running from June 18 through to 3 July 2016 marking the return of Christo and Jeanne-Claude to Italy after 40 years. An interactive showcase displays materials and implementation phases of the project, including live streaming of visuals shared by visitors to the installation at Lake Iseo.
The Floating Piers is a unique and unrepeated use of landscape, a thrilling project that assigns new meanings to environment and creates an amazing multi-sensory experience through water, earth and wind elements. The project was conceived in 1970 together with Jeanne-Claude, and in 2014 Christo set Lake Iseo as the location for the artwork; this is the first project that Christo will implement without his wife. It invites visitors to walk nearly three kilometres on water, atop of 200,000 cubes of high density polyethylene covered with 70,000 square meters of sparkling yellow fabric. The walkways connect Sulzano, Peschiera, Montisola, St. Paul’s Island, Peschiera Maraglio and Sensole, and are designed to be visible from the ground, road, mountains and air. The invigorating art conception will be open to public for 16 days, and is planned to be used by over 17,750 people at a time.
Christo sees himself as a “pure” artist and therefore, does not accept funding or sponsorship of any kind. He covers all costs related to the construction, permission, installations and dismantling of the project from the sales of its preparatory studies and other works. After 16 days all the work components will be removed and industrially recycled, and the only parts of a project remaining will be the memories and photos.
Viaggi di Architettura invites to experience ‘The Floating Piers Tour' which is available at Lake Iseo (BS), an hour away from Milan, from 18 June to 3 July 2016.
Price per person is € 50.
June Tour Dates
Saturday 18 at 10 h00 - 13 h00 / 17 h00 - 20 h00
Sunday 19 10 h00 - 13 h00
Saturday 25 10 h00 - 13 h00 Sold out / 17 h00 - 20 h00
Sunday 26 10 h00 - 13 h00
Possibility to have the tour by boat (surcharge).
For availability, information and updates on the Viaggi di Architettura schedules please contact Valentina.
NOTE
The accessibility to 'The Floating Piers' may vary due to weather conditions. In case of strong winds or atmospheric disturbances the installation may be suspended.
Photo credits: 'The Floating Piers' Wolfgang Volz and André Grossmann © 2014 Christo
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