WALKING ON WATER follows internationally renowned environmental artist – and Paounov’s fellow countryman – Christo on his quest to realize The Floating Piers, originally conceived in 1970 by Christo and his late wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude. In 2016, seven years after Jeanne-Claude’s death, this stunning, site-specific masterpiece – which allows visitors to walk across a great stretch of water, buoyed by polyethylene cubes draped in luminous yellow fabric – was finally cleared to be mounted on Italy’s Lake Iseo, which lies at the foot of the Alps. But securing a location proved to be only the first step in a tumultuous process of creative problem solving and prickly negotiations.
Walking on Water gives us a rare look into the business of large-scale art production – and the sort of temperament required to bestow unto the world something that feels close to a miracle.