Christo + Jeanne-Claude // The Floating Piers

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. Comprising 100,000 square meters of shimmering dahlia yellow fabric above a modular floating dock system of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes, this project created a three-kilometer walkway across the surface of Lake Iseo, connecting the mainland to the islands of Monte Isola and San Paolo. 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.