Art
What remains of Christos Floating Piers?
Christos last of the great art of action “Floating Piers” at the Italian lake Iseo is also leaving its mark in Germany. However, the lost gradually in the truest sense of the word, “in the sand”.
The Floating Piers, Christos latest work of art on the Northern Italian lake Iseo, was a huge success. Over a million visitors to the floating lands walked across the water. Three kilometers long and 16 meters wide, plastic pontoons had Christ with dahlias-coloured cloth coat. A real tourist boom for the small town of Sulzano.
The panels are delivered from Italy in Gronau requested
A month ago now. The webs have long been mined, the material is rolled. What remains is the hope that in the future more tourists will visit the Italian lake.
In Germany, however, working with Christos project is not yet completed. It is only now that the last remnants of the “Floating Piers disappear.” To be more precise: the last remnants said. “Christ wants to destroy his projects is always to be unrecognizable,” says Karsten Stienemann, managing Director of Recycling company Altex in the Westphalian town of Gronau. Therefore, the machines run at him this week hot. The yellow-orange fabrics are cut and frayed and then, with other synthetic fibers blended. In other words: they will be recycled.
Christos art is meant to remain ephemeral
A piece of fabric of the Floating Piers: cut, ripped and matted
For the American cover artist Chisto the impermanence of his art is an expression of freedom, as he emphasizes again and again: “That the works of art disappear is a part of the aesthetic concept. Thus, they are deeply rooted with freedom.” The freedom is for Christ, fled from the then Communist Bulgaria, is a big concern. Durability is synonymous with possession, and the possession of the artist sees as an enemy of freedom.
That the substances, which Christ used for years for the concealment of his objects, not just end up in the garbage, is just as important to him, because his works of art, the materials are used only once in two weeks. So it was in Italy.
First of all, the sheets had to be pressed to bales. Almost a own Packaging artwork, Christos meaning
It is not to be been so easy, says Karsten Stienemann, the pack loose materials to bring to Germany, and presses there, once again, bales. The Recycling company Altex has not manufactured the substances themselves, but a fabric that was under the fleece between the Panton and the fabric. In order to verify the removal of all, was Stienemann self-on-the-spot and eager to see what awaited him there. “It was really impressive, as I stood barefoot on the swaying pontoons,” he says. “We were there almost alone, because it was on the penultimate day the storm warnings.”
The Floating Piers to land on the riding arena
In spite of the emotional experience: The shredding of the materials for Stienemann Routine. From art matter is simple: “The fabric of 100,000 square metres of fabric and a total of 45 tons.” For Altex no big action, because the company processed and recycled in the month of around 3000 tonnes of textiles.
The last snippet of the artwork will land in the Sand of the riding places
From the fibres of the dahlias fabrics, a so-called needle felt is made. Used for insulation or as a protective under sheets of plastic, such as pond construction. From the company’s own under-fleece, which was used in Italy, established a small textile scraps, which are mixed to Riding areas with the top layer of sand. “The textile scraps to stabilize the surface layer so that the Hoof is stabilized and the cloven hoof in the Sand not to collapse,” explains Karsten Stienemann.
A piece of cloth does not remain only in the memory
In Christos meaning the fabric is made completely unrecognizable. “Christ does not want the new individual article or imitator of the materials use”, white Stienemann that has often worked together with the artist. For example, the veiling of the Berlin tags Enough in 1995 or 1998 in the case of the wrapping of the trees in Switzerland, the “Wrapped Trees”.
However, without the memory of the art action, the visitors and lovers of Christos art actions. During the Reichstag wrapping and other projects, were also distributed, on lake Iseo, in vain five times five inches large fabric remnants. And the are about Online auction portals. Against money, of course. Also scraps of cloth from the Reichstag in Berlin or the “Wrapped Trees” can be found here. Very ephemeral Christos works will probably never be.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
Visitors
Right after the opening, thousands of visitors came by ferry, train and buses to Sulzano, to admire the unique work of art – and to hike on it. The walkers can enjoy the art “with all the senses,” says Christo. “You can feel the waves in the Go, a great feeling,” says a visitor, who made a special trip to the Iseo lake.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
Sulzano: the Museum on time
The mayor of Sulzano, Fiorello Turla, you can look forward to. 18. June to 3. July 2016, the small town expects to see in Northern Italy, with approximately 800,000 visitors. They all travel to the newest see large-scale project “The Floating Piers” by the American artist Christo and commit. Three-Kilometer-long ridges on the Iseo lake, to connect the place Sulzano with two surrounding Islands.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
The Sketch…
A visit to the floating Installation is free. Christ wants all people to his art. Of the commercialization of art, he holds nothing. Therefore, his works are on view for a limited time only. The approximately 13-million-dollar project he financed through the sale of his sketches and photos. In this way, Christ remains independent of sponsors.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
…and the Original
The mayor referred to the art project “The Floating Piers” as the “miracle of Christ”. The 16-Meter-wide webs are made of floating pontoons, so that visitors from the mainland can walk to the Islands Monte Isola and San Paolo. A replacement on time for the ferry, brought about by the 2000 people of Monte Isola, as yet, to the mainland.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
Artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christ had developed the project “the Floating Piers” with his wife, Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009. The idea of an Installation, which makes it possible to walk on water, had Christ already in the 70s. To the desired locations in Argentina and Japan, there was no permission for the project. The Iseo lake in Northern Italy, bot ultimately, the ideal conditions for the work of art.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
The production of the textile plan
Substances Made in Germany: The textile company Setex from the Westphalian Hamminkeln has produced the gold-yellow shimmer nylon fabrics, with which the Piers are spanned. The 90 square kilometers of fabric plating but not only the three-Kilometer-long ridges on the water, but also roads in Sulzano and the surrounding villages.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
The processing of the materials
For a year, the company “geo had to edit-die luftwerker”, Lübeck time, the wide five-Meter and 200-pound panels. Alone the storage and Transport of the bales of Cloth required sophisticated logistics. To Transport the substances came in special bags which are one cubic meter in size. 200 pieces were transported by train and truck to Sulzano.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
Special equipment sewing on-site
Because the materials are so heavy, they had to work with two closer to the inside of a machine to sew the tracks. With an ultrasonic laser, the pieces were cut then. On the pontoons on the spot special machines that stitched the individual pieces to a large area.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
The floating body for the Piers
Christos gigantic Installation is not only an impressive work of art, but for all Involved, a special logistical challenge. 220.000 cubes left Christ out of polyethylene. The floats were assembled in the form of an approximately 75,000 square meters and three kilometers long pier together, and until the very end with the dahlias yellow fabric covered.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
Christ tests his work
Christ in the Test of the pier in October 2015. The artist is satisfied. He is happy that you can feel the wave motion of the pontoons under the feet.
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Water under the feet to feel: Christos “Floating Piers”
New work of art
The dahlias yellow Plan are perfect, now walkers will be able to test the durability. From the 18.6. – 3.7. 2016 art-loving visitors can feel the Golden-yellow fabric, the movement of water under the feet. Up to 20,000 people are at the same time on the webs, the “Floating Piers”. A prerequisite for a successful celebration of good weather, however, is.