Wrapping artist Christo is coming to Italy. He will create three kilometers of floating piers on the Northern Italian lake “Lago d’Iseo”.

It has been 40 years since Christo and Jeanne-Claude have worked in Italy. The couple famous for wrapping the German parliament “Reichstag” and the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris and for The Gates in New York’s Central Park, has a long history of creating projects in Italy: “Wrapped Fountain” and  “Wrapped Medieval Tower” in Spoleto, 1968; Wrapped Monuments in Milan, 1970; and “The Wall – Wrapped Roman Wall” in Rome, 1973–74.

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 be able to walk on it from Sulzano to Monte Isola and to the island of San Paolo, which it encircles. 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.

Lake Iseo is located 100 kilometers east of Milan and 200 kilometers west of Venice. It is one of the less known lakes in Northern Italy like Lago Maggiore Lage Maggiore or Lake Como.

The Floating Piers will be Christo’s first large scale project since Christo and Jeanne-Claude realized ‎The Gates in 2005 and Jean-Claude has died in 2009. As with all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects, The Floating Pierswill be funded entirely through the sale of Christo’s original works of art. After the 16-day exhibition, all components will be removed and industrially recycled.