Posts Tagged ‘Italy’
Jun20
Christo’s “Floating Piers” opens to public
2016 at 05:32 pm by admin | Comments Off
All images © Christo
After years of planning and preparation, artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s floating bridge art piece has finally been completed and opened to the general public in Italy! The piece, which was one of the couple’s last planned art pieces before Jeanne-Claude’s death in 2009, is titled “Floating Piers”, and contains over 200,000 floating fabric bricks that come together to create a bridge, linking Monte Isola and Sulzano with the island of San Paol on Lake Iseo. The project has been in planning since the 1970s, making this art piece an accomplishment for Christo in memory of his late wife. The exhibit is open and free for all visitors 24/7, barring weather and other restrictions, making this a prime spot for locals and tourists alike to check out this feat in design and art!
May06
Christo brings floating bridge to Italy in 2016
2015 at 03:02 pm by admin | Comments Off
Artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude are infamous for their environmental installation art, creating a number of iconic and controversial works since their first collaboration in 1961, up to and beyond Jeanne-Claude’s death in 2009. With their most recent work, “Over the River”, nearing completion after over 23 years of concept work and negotiations, Christo has announced a new piece coming to Italy next year! The work, titled “The Floating Piers”, will be exhibited at Lake Iseo in Italy, and will consist of 70,000 square meters of golden-orange fabric, which will comprise a floating network of bridges and piers.
These bridges will serve to connect the riverside commune of Sulzano to the islands of Monte Isola and San Paolo. The bridges will extend across the lake’s surface, allowing commuters to simply walk across to the islands on foot. The Floating Piers will serve as Christo’s first large-scale project to be completed since Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “The Gates” in 2005. With only concept sketches to give us an idea of what the final piece will look like, the exhibit is planned to remain at Lake Iseo for 16 days, after which the entire piece will be removed and recycled.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude were a married couple of artists, both born on June 13th, 1935. Christo, who attended the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, created works alongside Jeanne-Claude since their marriage in 1959 with their first work, Dockside Packages, releasing in 1961 in Cologne, Germany. Working with environmentally safe materials and constructions, they continued to erect temporary display pieces all over the world over the following decades, including pieces in Germany, France, Australia, the United States, Japan, Italy, and more. A trademark of their work is that nothing is left behind once the installation has run its course; the entire work is taken down and recycled, and all of the fees and payment is taken care of directly by Christo himself. Jeanne-Claude unfortunately passed away in 2009, while Christo continues to produce works in their name to this day.
Mar04
Heavy-lifting robotic suit created in Italy
2014 at 03:39 pm by admin | Comments Off
With science fiction and popular movies showing the future of robotics in human use, such as super-powered armor and giant robots, our expectations for the future of robotics are high. Now, thanks to the Perceptual Robotics Laboratory in San Giuliano Terme, Italy, we’re one step closer to this robo-powered dream. Researchers at the lab have created a fully functioning, wearable robotic exoskeleton, which is designed to emulate all of its user’s movements and amplify the force of its user. Thanks to this technology, each arm can lift up to 110 pounds in each claw, even when the arm is fully extended. This machine is expected to work in factories, construction, and rescue efforts in crisis situations like earthquakes or building collapses. While robotic exoskeletons are not a new concept, and many have already been created to help the handicapped and soldiers, this suit continues to revolutionize the technology, bringing the suit one step closer to mass-production and use in the real world.
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