The Floating Piers

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Lake Iseo, Italy 2014-2016

Installation only for sixteen days – June 18 through July 3, 2016 –

Top view of The Floating Piers image courtesy of Wolfgang Volz

Made from 100,000 m²of shimmering yellow fabric, carried by a modular floating dock system of 220,000 hight-density polyethylene cubes, will undulate with the movement of the waves as The Floating Piers rise just above the surface of the water. The Floating Piers was free and accessible to the public, no tickets or reservations were required.

“ I move along with the waving on The Floating Piers. The wind is blowing the fresh air on my face through my hair. I feel like walking on the surface of water. Waves of the fabric make me stumble several times “

Map of The Floating Piers

Departing from Milano to Brescia, with 30 mins from Brescia to Sulzano station.

Arriving at Lake Iseo around 20:30 P.M.- on June 30, a few people were waiting for the train to Sulzano. In the mean time at Sulzano station, many hundreds of people were waiting for train to go back to Brescia.

My friend and I decided to choose the contrary of the peak hours visiting The Floating Piers. Going to see the sunset and waiting until the rising of the sun in the morning, it was the best time to experience in the breathtaking scenery as well as the weather.

The waiting line at the entrance still long but it was steady moving.

Finally, we got a chance to walk on water – literally.

It was dark, I could see just only the way and trying not to go too close the border. The best experience perceiving at night was the sense of touching fabric with bare foot, the slowly moving of the piers with crowed of the people around.

We entered to Monte Isola at Peschiera Maraglio. At the midnight, there were still have a lot of people. All the restaurants and shops full of people.

Before 1 A.M. The staffs walked around to tell the closing time at 1 A.M. and opening again at 5 A.M.

We were looking for the settled place to stay overnight which will protect us from the windy night.

Night view of The Floating Piers image courtesy of Wolfgang Volz

The people from around the world experienced The Floating Piers and explored the hosting communities around Lake Iseo, which offered food and drinks, and places for hikes where visitors could take in different vantage points of the piers. Many areas in the island were setting temporary for food service. One man told us that he had never thought of this amount of people in lake Iseo. After midnight, the city still awake for cleaning and preparing of the next day. Every 15 mins, the small garbage trucks were passing around. I stayed up all the night long seeing another visitors, staffs, and polices walking around.

We went around and observed the village, smelling of freshly-baked bread, wondering about the conversation through the window.

Many of the people stayed overnight at Monte Isola were a photographer. We have been talked with a group of photographer until half past three and we decided to move and search for a good location of sunrise.

Around 4-5 A.M. It was rising of the sun. The light in the early morning contrasted blue colour of sky and water with the shades of red and gold.

Around 5 A.M. The sun rises, the crew changed the weather alert’s board to ‘Calm weather’. The sky had changed the colour from blue to the light blue and pinky. Surrounding with a deep green colour of the mountain, fading away to the grey shadow, and shining water.

View of The Floating Piers divided different shining textures and colours of the lake – Image courtesy of Wolfgang Volz

The looking-back scenes have been amazing view with the different shade and darker shadow.

Isola di San Paolo, image courtesy of Wolfgang Volz

It has been such a long day worth to see stunning view with things happening around.

From 7 A.M. A big amount of people entered and filled all the piers.

We talked to the crew that gave us the map and example of the yellow fabric.

On the way back, A crowded mass of people were waiting to get to The Floating Piers. On the other way out, there were just a few people including us.

Example piece of the saffron fabric

PS. Thanks our friend for recommended avoiding the peak hours.

Facts of “The Floating Piers”

220,000 cubes create the 3 kilometers of The Floating Piers.

220,000 pins hold the cubes together

200 anchors weighing 5.5 tons each hold the 16 meter wide piers in place

37,000 m. of rope connect the anchors to the piers

70,000 m² of felt line the piers and streets underneath the fabric

100,000 m²of fabric cover 3 kilometers of pier and 2.5 kilometers of pedestrian streets

2.7 million lit of water fill the sloping sides

Information on Materials and Removal:

Removal of The Floating Piers began July 4, and materials will be industrially recycled for use in a variety of applications. The recycling involves several different processing methods, and will take place at various locations in Europe.

“We are grateful to all the local leaders and authorities for their partnership on this project,” said said Vladimir Yavachev. “Maintaining the Lake and its surroundings continues to be a top priority for us. We will remove all components of The Floating Piers over the course of three months, and we will leave Lake Iseo as if we were never here.”

Christo (and Jeanne-Claude)