On the saffron trails

Thousands of people are in a hurry to Lake Izeo to walk through its waters

If you think that European inhabitants are most concerned about Britain’s exit from the EU, you are mistaken. There is a more important story. Open any tabloid and see crowds of people wandering to the island in the middle of the lake along a strange orange road. This is Lake Izeo in northern Italy, a hundred kilometers from Milan, and the island is called San Paolo. If you are familiar with the painting by Bechlin "Island of the Dead" (at least one of them, because Boklin often repeated this sad landscape), you know what San Paolo looks like. The island is scratched with an orange road, it goes to the island of more, Monte Isol, and returns to the city of Sulzano. The road in the water was built by the artist Christ Javashev , but his masterpiece was signed by two names. Jeanne-Claude died 7 years ago, the plan of the “ floating pier ” with Christ arose in 1970, they planned to place the road in different countries, but there was not enough money, and only now the 81-year-old artist managed to stretch it 5 kilometers in Lombardy, spending 15 million euros. Christ says that he fully paid for the construction, spending money proceeds from the sale of drawings and collages. It is impossible to sell the most famous works of Christ, they arise for a short time and disappear. The pier on IEO is also destined for a very short life.

Once at the station in Breshia, from where the train went to Sulzano, I saw the crowd on one of the platforms and did not immediately guess that all these people were striving to look at the creation of Christ. The “floating pier” is open only 16 days, the entrance is free, and success surpassed all expectations: tens of thousands of pilgrims come to Izeo to walk along an orange road. Perhaps for the first time in history, the work of contemporary art has become the object of such a mass worship.

This is exactly the pilgrimage: the religious background of the plan is obvious

They strive here as in the Lourder or to the belt of the Virgin, and these are not ordinary visitors to the art basel, manifestos, documents and Venetian Biennale, but the most ordinary spa and tourists. Especially for them, a bus route was arranged: the Pierce combination with a visit to the fashion-itelet. 20 years ago, Christ was packed by the Reichstag in Berlin, and crowds were going to stare at him (alas, I missed this entertainment), but it is unlikely that something can be compared with the success of his last (probably in all respects) work. I knew that there would be a lot of people, but I could not imagine how difficult it would be to get to the lake. The melancholy clerk in the office of the Trenord railway company told me that for the sake of Pierce they had to change the train schedule, but it is impossible to transport all passengers without delay. “The rod and rod every day,” he made in French. For those who wanted to walk along the orange road, a separate platform decorated with posters with a pattern of Christ was allocated. The Dutch stood in front of me, the Chinese were nervous behind me, I did not hear my own speech in this line.

This is exactly a pilgrimage: the religious background of the plan is obvious. Christ walked through the waters of the Lake Genisaret Aki, and the orange color (Christ prefers to be called Shafranov) resembles the robes of Buddhist monks. The previous large project of Christ and Jean-Claude was also devoted to this color: in 2005, they installed the Sharnov Gate in the Central Park of New York.

The quiet resort city is dispersed

To get on the train, I had to stand in line for more than an hour, and such an experience leads to sad thoughts about the car of the totalitarian state, the fate of Winston Smith and other unpleasant things. In Sulzano itself, passengers are met by a new crowd: they come here both by cars and by buses, and, judging by the revival in the sky, fly on helicopters. The quiet resort city is dispersed (I will not pick up a more tender word): restaurants are scored, lines are constantly screeching in bunch, and local residents wear cards on their chests that they can walk as they want, and not on tourist paths. It looks like martial law, the consequences of the attack or preparation for the punk festival. Of course, during these 16 days, new millionaires were born in Sultsano: the vegetable and sausages that are famous for this area are souvenir T -shirts, beer and even simple water can bring a condition. The albums of Christ are also sold here, both new, released by Taschen and dedicated to the "pier", and old, very twisted-apparently discovered in some warehouse. It seemed to me that they did not use success, but I could be mistaken.

The orange fabric, pretty scorched, begins a stone's throw from the railway station, and then there is a queue. It is unsafe to stand under the scorching sun, and the Samaritans from the local fire brigade drove their red car and from time to time irrigate pilgrims from the Brandspoit, directed, fortunately, to heaven, and not directly into the crowd.

And so we enter the seemingly endless orange path. How does it all work? Very simple. 100,000 square meters of super -strength fabric are stretched on 220,000 plastic cubic meters, immersed in the lake with divers using 37,000 meters of ropes and 200 anchors. Fans of statistics will be pleased with another meaningless figure: it took 220,000 to create a persistent design. How would Benedictines reacted from the monastery on the island of San Paolo, if 200 years ago they were shown a picture from today: their monastery was surrounded by a giant orange coupling, according to which thousands of Chinese, Germans and Slavs move?

In order to get to the former monastery (its doors are now tightly closed), you need to strive two kilometers, partially along the pier, partially in water. As soon as I thought about those who could not withstand this path, fate threw a sad sight: a puddle of blood, and in it lies an elderly lady - probably a victim of a sunny blow and collapsed directly on a saffron canvas. Around the fallen, doctors fussed. Rescuers, doctors, police and traffic controllers, driving away travelers from the edge of the road, are very many along the whole way. There are many birds: ducks and swans swim to the pier and mockingly look at the procession. The most reasonable pilgrims immediately took off their shoes, I followed their example and made it right, here I should walk barefoot. Underwater cubes are slightly staggering, hesitated and sagged, recalling the shakyness of being itself.

A floating pier with some creak climbs into the category of Lend Art . Last year, I saw the most famous work of this kind - a spiral dam in Utah, a stone curl, leaving for a large salty lake. It was deserted, only one single person photographed the creation of Robert Smithson for the “art project” through a large gilded frame, which he pulled out of his car from the trunk. We met, and he told me a million extravagant stories: about how he traveled around Europe, quarreled with KGB agents on the Russian-Ukrainian border, arranged a performance near the NATO base, fell ill with thyroid cancer and miraculously recovered. On the "floating pier" I could not talk heart to heart with other travelers. Why did they come here, why were they stood in lines and walked under the scorching sun 5 kilometers along the saffron road? Have you become two hours closer to God? Do contemporary art love? It is impossible to find out.