Walking on Lakes Water

The lake is Iseo lake, whose waters will be able to walk along a buoyant and colorful catwalk: This is the
most recent work of the artist Christo (full name: Valdimirov Javacheff Christo). The work is called The
Floating Piers and, like all the works of Christo, is unique, unrepeatable, and destined to last only sixteen
days.
The artist says he wants to integrate its creation in the landscape: the work is water, the mountains, the sky,
the green of the woods. We have "drawn" the idea integrating these elements that are viewed and consumed
every day and that are not perceived and experienced in their profound beauty1.
On the shores of the lake, in Lovere, there is a monastery of the Poor Clare Sisters in which, since 1540,
lives a community of women consecrated to God. The great attraction and artistic resonance of the event has
reached us too, we hear about the preparations, the technical innovations, the costs, the involvement of
lacustrine municipalities and volunteers, estimates on the number of visitors... and we feel a bit
uncomfortable hearing about the experience of walking on water with Christo, thinking of the Gospel story
in which Jesus Christ was walking on the waters of its lake and also invites Peter to do the same.
How to interpret this event? It may be read as an imitation of the miracle, made possible by the twenty-first
century art, or is it a form of subtle mockery of the faith? To better understand it, we must listen first to what
suggest the artist with his latest work. Christo and his wife, the artist Jeanne Claude Denat de Guillebon
(died in 2009) had told reporters that they would not respond to questions on religion 2 (as well as on policy
and other artists), therefore we do not have a declarations of intent but we can try to read the work itself,
which speaks to its special luminous and interrogator voice.
The Floating Piers link Sulzano with Montisola and are covered with a special iridescent orange fabric,
chosen because it reflects sunlight differently depending on the time of day, so there is a path on the lake, on
the water, and it is possible (and advisable) to walk barefoot... the experience allows you to feel the
movement of water on the fly and look around from a new point of view, walking in a space born from an
idea to read complex different levels of depth: it is not simply to bring the natural beauty with respect and
joyous wonder, is also involved in the experience the dimension of freedom - that Christo associates
irrationality defining the project a demonstration of absolute freedom and total irrationality - but also time is
of the essence... very few days and nights of his (span) life.
The appearance of 'irrational' work refers to the typical art donation, which does not seek extrinsic
justifications but rather invites to open a gash that let shine through some image, some experience, a new
world.
Moving within the artistic space,then, is not something that happens in solitude; so many people, from so
many nations, living together the same feelings, made more intense by the awareness of the fact that the
project is ephemeral, the unique and unrepeatable experience as he wanted the artist at odds with the banal
and repetitive style of our time, in which the image occurs primarily in advertising language. The
1

Interview with "Via Bergamo", February 18, 2016, http://www.bergamopost.it/vivabergamo/qualche-riga-per-conosceremeglio-christo-lartista-che-ci-fara-camminare-sul-lago-diseo/

2

Interview with "National Geographic", 2006, Christo and Jeanne-Claude Unwrapped,

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0611/voices.html

concentration over time, and materials destined to appear in their fragility to quickly disappear and be
removed, indicating - as Jeanne-Claude said - a special human quality: our being made to not last forever,
that awareness that makes us watching the children with a hint of sadness, knowing how little childhood
lasts.
After reading these hints and interpretation of the work of art, we can move on the shores of Lake Galilee
and observe what Jesus does. And its possible to do this step because, even if the words of Scripture, is
required of the commitment to interpretation, the word of God can be understood at several levels, in fact as St. Gregory the Great says3 - its waters are shallow and deep at the same time, they do not reject anyone
and never exhaust their meaning. To the most immediate meaning of the story, we can add more, and the
world opened by the word of God offers inexhaustible perspectives, as an inexhaustible is the revealed truth.
The episode, narrated by three evangelists, takes place at the end of the day on which Jesus had taught and
fed the multitudes by the multiplication of bread and was climbed the mountain alone to pray. His disciples
were in the boat on the lake, it was already dark and the lake was rough because of a strong wind, tired of
paddling against the wind for the effort they had the impression that the banks were unreachable... When
Jesus meets them walking on the water, He reassures them, because they were afraid, and said to them:
Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid! As soon as the disciples let him get into the boat, the wind ceased,
and they manage to reach the shore to which they were going.
Jesus reveals himself as the Lord, to whom every creature is subject, even the forces of nature recognize
their Lord and obey him. The rough waters are a symbol of the ancient chaos, from which emerged the tidy
and beautiful cosmos, Jesus, subsiding waters and walking on their surface, reveals his divinity. In fact, the
story ends with the exclamation of the disciples Truly you are the Son of God! It is not a ghost, not a
magician, is their Lord that encourages them reassuring the wind and waves. Matthew, in his account, also
adds the episode where Peter asks the Lord to be able to reach him walking on water: Jesus invites him to
join him and Peter, boldly go to him supported by his faith... but, just the fear prevails over faith, it begins to
sink and asks Jesus to save him. Here what brings us the story: to recognize Jesus as our Savior and believe
in him with full confidence, despite the great difficulties that shake the boat of our lives, in spite of the dark
and the contrary wind. No miracles recounted in the Bible is a sight offered to arouse wonder, every Gospel
passage invites to the faith, to recognize Jesus, and to take his hand.
Then, going back to June 2016, and Iseo Lake, if we can read an invitation - decoding the language of art - it
is not only proposed a unique and exciting experience, but it takes nearly traits of a modern parable in which
he speaks of faith. People all over the world, people of our time, which calls itself willingly 'liquid' society,
run through a bright road. It is not a miracle but maybe it can be offering an artistic space that - in its
condensed time - invites us to think, to look with open and attentive eyes and heart, traces of eternal beauty.

Letter to Leandro of Seville, 4. Cit. Carlo M. Martini Attingere alla sorgente dellamore. Parola e vita, in
http://www.chiesadimilano.it/polopoly_fs/1.24455.1307543354!/menu/standard/file/MARTINI_sorgente.pdf