Christo’s personal project book with lithograph The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy

Limited Art Edition of 100 copies (No. 61–160), each numbered and signed by Christo, coming with the lithograph The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2017, pencil, printed photograph by Wolfgang Volz and fabric sample, 71.1 x 44.5 cm (28 x 17.5 in.)

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 saffron 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 personal project book, 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 water 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.

This limited Art Edition combines the project book with a 24 x 24 cm swatch of the project’s original dahlia yellow fabric as well as the lithograph The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2017. This stunning, grand scale aerial photograph by Wolfgang Volz is signed by Christo and includes an original sample of the project fabric.

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, Berlin, 1971–95 and (with Josy Kraft) for Wrapped Trees, Riehen, Switzerland, 1997–98, 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 artist: Christo and Jeanne-Claude began their collaboration in 1961, and lived in New York City since 1964. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009; Christo died in 2020. 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; The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014–16, The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, 2016–18, and L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961–2021.