Lake Iseo, Italy
When I saw that Christo + Jeanne-Claude are created floating piers on Lake Iseo, I had to share. For our honeymoon we stayed in both Venice and Lake Iseo. Lake Iseo is one of the smaller lakes in the Lakes region of Italy. It is slightly more remote, and less touristy than the other such lakes as Como and Marjorie. When planning our trip I decided we would use this place as a home base to take day trips to the larger lakes and surrounding cities. It was perfect, and the most wonderful place to come back to in the evenings to relax and enjoy the view. We stayed in an AirBnb that was a 14th century stable turned modern cottage. Extremely affordable, and quite certainly, the BEST.
Christo
The Floating Piers (Project for Lake Iseo, Italy)
Drawing 2014 in two parts
15 x 96" and 42 x 96" (38 x 244 cm and 106.6 x 244 cm)
Pencil, charcoal, pastel, wax crayon, enamel paint, hand-drawn map, cut-out photographs by Wolfgang Volz, fabric sample and tape
Photo: André Grossmann
© 2014 Christo
Ref. # 2-2014
On their website - ChristoJeanneClaude.net, they thoroughly explain and articulate the design and process of the project:
From June 18 to July 3, 2016, weather permitting, Italy’s Lake Iseo will be reimagined. 70,000 square meters of shimmering yellow fabric, carried by a modular floating dock system of 200,000 high-density polyethylene cubes, will undulate with the movement of the waves as The Floating Piers rise just above the surface of the water.
Visitors will experience this work of art by walking on it from Sulzano to Monte Isola and to the island of San Paolo, which is framed by The Floating Piers. The mountains surrounding the lake will offer a bird’s-eye view of The Floating Piers, exposing unnoticed angles and altering perspectives.
A 3-kilometer-long walkway will be created as The Floating Piers extend across the water of Lake Iseo. The piers will be 16 meters wide and approximately 50 centimeters high with sloping sides. The fabric will continue along 1.5 kilometers of pedestrian streets in Sulzano and Peschiera Maraglio.
Above images are collage pieces by Christo - please follow this link [here] for more information on the individual pieces
Map indicating fabric on pedestrian streets on Monte Isola
Map indicating fabric on pedestrian streets in Sulzano
Above images show the progress of the installation, photographs by: Wolfgang Volz
Christo on Lake Iseo, September 2015
Photo: Wolfgang Volz
Operations manager Vladimir Yavachev, Christo and registrar/curator Josy Kraft are scouting the future location of the project, Lake Iseo, May 2014
Photo: Wolfgang Volz
The images of the installation were taken by Wolfgang Volz, you can see more images and more information about them [here].
The view of Lake Iseo from our Air Bnb | Photograph by Lauren L Caron © 2016
View from Monte Isola | Photograph by Lauren L Caron © 2016
Now seeing this installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, I so badly want to return. One of our days on Lake Iseo, we took the ferry to the larger central island called Monte Isola to hike and potentially swim. The mountainous water was far too cold for us to swim in, even in June but the hike revealed incredible medieval hermits, and working farms that just took our breath away. On the ride back we past the Island of San Paolo, I was so curious about that perfect little island with the most amazing villa. We joked that even though they say George Clooney lives on Lake Como, that that must be his home...
Isle of San Paolo from the ferry | Photograph by Lauren L Caron © 2016
Take me back please, take me back!
