Unframed, Diluvium,

In September 2026, a wave seventy meters wide surged across the façade of the Vatican Apostolic Library. Invited to create a work on the outside of the building, a first, JR took an 1866 engraving by Gustave Doré, made to illustrate the biblical Flood, and scaled it up to the size of the façade. Inaugurated by Pope Leo XIV, DILUVIUM is part of AQVA, the first chapter of Catastrophe and Wonder, the Library’s new exhibition cycle.

At this scale, the engraving takes on a new nature: every stroke of the burin becomes a visible line, and a miniature becomes architecture. This lithograph preserves the trace of the wave’s passage across the monument.

In the biblical story, the Flood is both catastrophe and a new beginning. A library gathers fragments of the world to carry them beyond their time. By freezing the wave just before it breaks, JR invites us to ask what we choose to pass on.

After La Caverne du Pont Neuf, this edition continues JR’s story with bridges, this time at the Vatican, where the Pope’s own title, pontifex, means “bridge builder.”