Floating Piers
June 17, 2016 6:31 PM   Subscribe

Smithsonian Magazine goes in-depth with Christo and his new project Floating Piers which will open on June 18 and run through July 3 on Italy's Lake Iseo. His last major installation with with his late wife Jeanne-Claude in New York City's Central Park -- The Gates (2005).
posted by hippybear (30 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was just wondering whatever happened to Christo. Thanks for posting!
posted by saulgoodman at 6:33 PM on June 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


I've noticed this getting a lot of hate/snark, both in the comments of the New York Times article I read about it this morning, and among my friends on social media... but I'm having a hard time understanding why.

It seems really cool to me, and if I were the sort of person who had the ability to jet off to Italy on short notice, I would absolutely be there to walk around on the cool thing.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 6:34 PM on June 17, 2016 [6 favorites]


I initially read the headline as "Floating Pliers", and was even more baffled than usual about Christo's stunts.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:40 PM on June 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


That's much more Damien Hirst in concept, I think.
posted by hippybear at 6:41 PM on June 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


So, just FYI, the more you scroll down in that second link, the more you see the project actually begin to take form and be installed. It becomes quite breathtaking as opening day draws closer.
posted by hippybear at 7:06 PM on June 17, 2016 [8 favorites]


I was expecting to see either Mr. Morgan or Mr. Anthony in the water. And kinda hoping for Anthony because he could've made a groanworthy pun about the whole thing.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:08 PM on June 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Holy crap. As with just about every Christo project, I expected to think it was something pretty simple, and just was gobsmacked by how vast and impressive it all turns out to be.
posted by xingcat at 7:49 PM on June 17, 2016 [3 favorites]




I've noticed this getting a lot of hate/snark

I think that's par for the course for every Christo project that I've read about in my lifetime. Yet, as far as I'm aware, the haters have never had the last word on anything he's done.
posted by treepour at 8:36 PM on June 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


This is the best photograph I have seen showing the extent of the project as it is installed. The white along the shoreline will also be saffron fabric as well as some streets and neighborhoods in the towns (you can see some on the far shore already in place).
posted by hippybear at 8:40 PM on June 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


This is beautiful. I was lucky to see his wrapped Reichstag firsthand in 1990, though I was a kid and didn’t really understand it. Also got to walk through the Gates in Central Park, and probably still have one of the tiny giveaway polypropylene squares they were giving away. His sketches have an otherworldly aesthetic, and I love the large-scale collaboration required to realize his works.
posted by migurski at 9:08 PM on June 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


I love this. I wish I'd known about this in time to plan my annual vacation around going to see it!
posted by arcticseal at 9:50 PM on June 17, 2016


I got to see the Umbrellas and that was cool beans.

I agree that yeah, Christo (+JC) art projects are weird...but cool.

And Christo always answers two last questions, even when no one asks them.
What is it for? What does it do?
“It does nothing. It is useless.”
And he beams.

posted by jenfullmoon at 10:29 PM on June 17, 2016 [5 favorites]


his new project Floating Piers

please, please, please let this involve wrapping Piers Morgan in butcher paper and setting him adrift in the center of the Pacific
posted by koeselitz at 11:38 PM on June 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


I am going to see this probably next weekend. I Will report back.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 1:21 AM on June 18, 2016 [8 favorites]


I just saw this this morning (I planned this trip after I read about the project late last year)! It's extraordinary in person - the individual blocks you step on are independently buoyant, and they both move with the lake's motion and when you step on them. The effect is about as close to walking on water as I've ever experienced.

The fabric is initially more of a yellow when dry, but when it gets wet it turns into a bright hazard orange (and most of it is this color).

Lots of volunteers are stationed around keeping people 6' back from the edges. They were also handing out maps and little squares of the fabric as a keepsake.

My wallet was stolen in Milan on my way here, but the joy of experiencing this piece helped me forget that, albeit temporarily.
posted by rmannion at 3:47 AM on June 18, 2016 [9 favorites]


God. This project is magnificent!
posted by Thorzdad at 5:00 AM on June 18, 2016


I've heard Christo speak twice in the last few years, the first time with his late partner, Jeanne-Claude, who is still billed as his co-artist. He has been in Denver recently because of his Over the River project, a couple hours drive from here, which has no scheduled opening date, even though almost all of the "legal hurdles" have been cleared.

Many people (including Christo) have noted the fact that the process of getting the project approved is a major part of the "art." This is pretty cool, but here's the coolest part of this sometimes decades-long process: during all the brouhaha about his projects (and there certainly has been a lot about Over the River for close to ten years), the work of art has taken deep roots in the minds of the many who run across the idea of the piece and images of the pieces -- whether those exposed to his work are art-lovers or not. So this piece becomes a part of you more so than does a painting you see repeatedly in a museum.

Christo would not use the word "conceptual art," of course. He can't be put in a box (wrapped or not), and because he is The World's Most Famous Artist, he can get away with talking about his art and his life as an artist without resorting to International Artspeak at all. His talks revealed a charming, intelligent, and soulful man. (And generous with his time. Although his first talk was to a few thousand paying art-lovers in Denver, his second was gratis, at Denver's arts high school, where he fielded questions from the kids in an inspiringly disarming way.)

Anyway, as soon as a date is announce, I'll be like those people waiting anxiously by their computers at 10 AM to score concert tickets, calling all the kayak companies on the Arkansas River, booking a fleet of kayaks for my friends and me.
posted by kozad at 6:06 AM on June 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


Good lord, kozad. Keep me in the loop. I'll try to keep myself informed, too. I've been watching Christo ever since I heard of Running Fence back in the 70s (my age was in the single digits at the time, but oh, how he grabbed my imagination!), and I've yet to see any of his works in person.

Watching the legal fights about Over The River has been fascinating. It seems that art will prevail. I truly cannot wait.
posted by hippybear at 6:16 AM on June 18, 2016


I'll never forget their Umbrellas installation. One of the few things of which I'd say "you just had to be there."
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 6:40 AM on June 18, 2016


I wish I could see this! I was thinking about Christo last week when I was on vacation. I went to Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto and I thought, "I'm pretty sure I've been here before!"
posted by pangolin party at 6:51 AM on June 18, 2016


I love this exchange, it's so perfect.
“How much will it cost?” is almost always the first question.

“Nothing. It is free. We pay for everything.”

“How do we get tickets?”

“You don’t need tickets.”

“What time does it close?

“It will be open around-the-clock. Weather permitting.”

“What happens when it’s over?”

“We recycle everything.”

“How do you stay so energetic?”

“I eat for breakfast every day a whole head of garlic, and yogurt.”

And Christo always answers two last questions, even when no one asks them.

What is it for? What does it do?

“It does nothing. It is useless.”
posted by Fizz at 8:32 AM on June 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


Also got to walk through the Gates in Central Park, and probably still have one of the tiny giveaway polypropylene squares they were giving away.

I definitely still have one. I keep it in my wallet.

The Gates utterly changed how I feel about conceptual art. I was living in NY at the time, and thought the project sounded dumb and pretentious and pointless and stunty, which is pretty much how I felt about all conceptual projects at the time.

But before it officially opened everyone was all "omg Christo! omg The Gates!" so I said what the hell and took the train into Manhattan the day it opened and spent the afternoon walking through and around and between and among The Gates.

To my great surprise, I found myself having a really strong--almost overwhelming--emotional reaction to it, to the sight and feel of the piece itself, but also to the myriad ways I saw a wildly diverse cross section of New Yorkers experiencing and enjoying it.

That emotional reaction was a transformative moment for me in terms of my relationship with art.

I finally understood, at the age of 34, that what a piece of art "means" (or might be "about") is of only limited significance compared to what it does.

I went back to Central Park every day the Gates were up.
posted by dersins at 9:08 AM on June 18, 2016 [9 favorites]


It's like a concept art future place pulled briefly into reality, with the giant, stark new infrastructure for the sake of leisure nestling up against the messy, gradually built past.

> I initially read the headline as "Floating Pliers"

That installation was in Bromwich.
posted by lucidium at 12:49 PM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


hippybear: Thank you soooooo much for posting this. I saw it this morning and couldn't get to it, as I was going to work. But I just spent forty-five minutes chuckling happily at this, the sheer wonder of it, and remembering The Umbrellas, which had the exact same quality. I'm looking forward to Over the River!
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 6:04 PM on June 18, 2016


Time Magazine has a 15-photo slideshow (that thankfully doesn't load a new page for each picture).

Also, @floating_piers on twitter.
posted by hippybear at 6:50 PM on June 18, 2016




“It does nothing. It is useless.” what his work does is create fantastic socio-egalitarian discussion..political and communitarian action
posted by judson at 9:27 AM on June 20, 2016


Christo's projects always *sound* kind of silly, but from all reports they are consistently quite impressive in context.
posted by tavella at 3:52 PM on June 20, 2016


Floating Piers Project on Italian lake closes Artist Christo's orange floating walkway on a northern Italian lake will close Sunday after attracting over a million visitors, twice as many as expected.

PBS NewsHour has a video piece with transcript about Floating Piers from July 2, including an interview with Christo. These floating piers let visitors (almost) walk on water
posted by hippybear at 10:17 AM on July 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


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