Who was there, saw him sometimes. On the big Kamerafloß of his Team, the visitors shot it with the “Floating Piers”. As God the father, Christ stood at the top of the railing, with white, flowing hair. A gracious God, awake and shy he looked at his work. The bright yellow panels on the Lago d’Iseo, extending from the mainland over to Monte Isola and a further, smaller island – a course of three kilometers. And to the many people who strolled across the gently rocking webs, many of them barefoot. So Christo and Jeanne-had it, Claude thought, that the people walk over the water.
An Italian summer’s tale, for 16 days On lake Iseo, near Bergamo, you could experience in July 2016, the beauty. Christo wrapped the water, as he had once wrapped the Reichstag. The visitors experienced but also: heat, strong rain, storms. The “Floating Piers” threatened to be a Disaster, because on the second day, 55,000 people flooded the walkways. The consequences: long hours of waiting, crowds, risk of accident, alert level to Red. It was only when Christ cancel the project threatened, the authorities began, the streams of visitors at least something to reduce it. At the end, there were still 1.2 million visitors, twice as many as expected.
Now there is the Making of the project, the documentary “Christ Walking on Water” by Andrey Paounov. The Director is Bulgarian, as to Christ. The images were collected from ten Crews together for 700 hours of Material from the Paounov his 100-minute Film has been mounted. Who now feared a hagiography, a PR-action for a work of art, whose 15-million-Euro-Budget Christo is not financed with public funding or sponsors, but, as usual, by the sale of his art, in a pleasant way disabused.
“Walking on Water” is a Close-up in the style of Cinéma verité, the unembellished portrait of the artist, discussed enthusiastically with the Kids in a New York school class, while he fremdelt at the VIP reception between the Adabeis. And a passionate team workers: When Skyping with the catalogue-makers Christo angry – and the punters happy.
“Our art is completely useless”, he says before the Italian politicians and authorities leaders. “You exist only because Jeanne-Claude and I want you to see.”
The bureaucracy, the severe weather: the art of Disaster response
art comes from Marvel. And of stubbornness in the face of disaster. There is a sad silence, the loneliness in the Studio after the death of Jeanne-Claude in 2009. It’s the fight with the bureaucracy (accompanied by an ironic, minimalist Soundtrack) follows, with the soon to be but no longer so enthusiastic policy and the case of winds over the lake. With the technique Christ is more often on a war footing. Whether Beamer, microphone, or Computer, as soon as he is in the vicinity, something didn’t work. And if 220 000 plastic cubes are assembled and lowered into the water, is the devil in the Detail.
bewilderment, fear, hope: Christos face can be read like a book.Photo: Wolfgang Volz
As the Golden polyamide fabric on it to attach? Christos assistant Vladimir Yavachev, his nephew. A giant of a man, the artistic coordinator, gallery owner, Bodyguard, crisis Manager, go-to-girl. On the mounting question – thick chain, thin chain, wood? – fight the two of them fiercely. And a little later Yavachev supplied the now 83-year-old artist as a small child, sticking him in large patches in the face and scolds him. Christ was overthrown, he was wearing the wrong shoes. Always this stubbornness.
The Film is also a tribute to Christos disarming being
The most beautiful scenes: Christos defense of reality against the Virtual. The “Real wind, real dry, real wet, real fear, real joy,” he says, beaming. As the first web actually starts to fluctuate in waves to the Royal. And as the fabric is tied, in spite of the severe weather finally fixed, he can hardly believe his luck. But equally great is his despair, as many to many join and a six-year-old girl disappeared in the crowd.
the consternation, fear, hope: Christos face can be read like a book. Perhaps this is the explanation as to why he was at least 23 of its 47 seemingly impossible projects with Jeanne-Claude: to be disarming. He and his Team plow tirelessly and yet be left with plenty of Humor in their own right. And if he needs power, slurps, he is a raw Egg. Next, he has a project in the desert.
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Christos “Floating Piers” “don’t disturb the spiders a bit, people!“
Peter Becker
as of Thursday, eight of Berlin’s cinemas (OmU).
