Bridges come in all shapes and sizes these days, and we've covered some of the more formally and functionally innovative ones recently. But this installation, by Bulgarian-born American artist Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, (of The Gates, Central Park, New York City fame and formerly of artistic duo Christo and Jean-Claude, who was Christo's life partner and died in 2009), transforms a bridge into a work of art.
To connect the isolated island of San Paolo, off the coast of the town of Sulzano (about 62 miles east of Milan) with the larger isle of Monte Isola, Christo devised a scheme, aptly called The Floating Piers, for a buoyant bridge comprised of 220,000 modular plastic components that span across Lake Iseo, skimming the shoreline of Monte Isola and surrounding the much smaller San Paolo. When the piece is finished, it will be draped with goldenrod-hued fabric, for an added bit of visual interest.
On Designboom, commenters noted that though the plastic used in the piece will be recycled, it seems an outsize energy and resource expenditure for a temporary installation that will last only 16 days. What do you think? Is it a waste or does it seem worth it for the sake of art? Time will tell how the project is received from an aesthetic standpoint.
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