Key West Florida Weekly

Key West Art & Historical Society Summer Film Series presents documentary ‘Walking on Water’ at Tropic Cinema Aug. 13



Part of the dahlia-yellow “The Floating Piers” walkway art installation at Lake Iseo. The documentary film “Walking on Water,” an intimate portrait of installation artist Christo and the stakes of large-scale art, will be presented by Key West Art & Historical Society at the Tropic Cinema on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 6:30 p.m. PHOTO BY MARCIO DE ASSIS VIA WIKIPEDIA

Part of the dahlia-yellow “The Floating Piers” walkway art installation at Lake Iseo. The documentary film “Walking on Water,” an intimate portrait of installation artist Christo and the stakes of large-scale art, will be presented by Key West Art & Historical Society at the Tropic Cinema on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 6:30 p.m. PHOTO BY MARCIO DE ASSIS VIA WIKIPEDIA

On Tuesday, Aug. 13, Key West Art & Historical Society presents the second in its new Tuesday night “Art & Artists” summer film series, screening at the Tropic Cinema at 416 Eaton St. The films, curated and hosted by society board member and cineaste Michael Shields and other special guest experts, start at 6:30 p.m. and run on alternate Tuesdays through Sept. 24. Next up this week is “Walking on Water,” an intimate portrait of installation artist Christo and the stakes of large-scale art.

In June of 2016, “The Floating Piers,” a 1.86-mile long, 16-meter wide saffron-colored walkway installation across Italy’s Lake Iseo that continued an additional 1.55 miles down the pedestrian streets of Sulzano and Peschiera, opened to the public. It took 600 workers to install, included 220 six-ton anchors in the lake floor as deep as 302 feet, more than 270,000 attached cubes, 70,000 square meters of fabric and cost nearly $17 million, which Christo funded himself through the sales of his art. The free public installation was open for only 16 days.

Boasting uncensored access to the artist and his team, “Walking on Water” is an unprecedented look at Christo’s process, from the inception through to the completion of the piece that was experienced by over 1.2 million people. The film takes the viewer on an intimate journey into Christo’s world amid mounting madness — from complex dealings between art and state politics to engineering challenges, logistical nightmares and the sheer force of mother nature. Captured through breathtaking aerial views and fly on the wall camerawork, we watch the artist’s vision unfold and get to know the man chasing it.

The films to follow in the “Art & Artists” summer film series are the animated wonder “Chico and Rita” (Aug. 27), “Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect” (Sept. 10) and “Russian Ark,” a film that moves through 33 rooms of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum (Sept. 24). Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at TropicCinema.com. For more information, visit kwahs.org, click “Tickets.” Your Museums. Your Community. It takes an Island. ¦

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