Pope Leo XIV Makes a Splash for His 71st Birthday, Announcing a Water-Themed Art Exhibition at the Vatican Library

In celebration of his 71st birthday, Pope Leo XIV this week announced the opening of a new contemporary art exhibition at the Vatican Apostolic Library, in Rome. Open to the public from September 25 through May 14, “AQVA” is the inaugural chapter of a five-year exhibition series, “Catastrophe and Wonder,” that will explore historical threats to the written word—including fire, light, insects and humans—and invite visitors to “look beyond fear to discover new avenues of interpretation and artistic creation,” according to a statement from the pope’s library. The show is being held there in an effort to encourage in-person engagement.

A 230-foot-long sculpture of a crashing black-and-white wave, called Dilivium, stretches across the historic library’s outdoor facade. Created by the French artist JR, the piece recreates the scene of a biblical flood as originally imagined in an 1866 wood engraving by Gustave Doré, reports Artsy’s Katie White. According to the artist, it is a metaphor for existential crises of climate change, polarization and the new frontiers of A.I., which Pope Leo has consistently addressed throughout his papacy.

American artist Bill Moran has spent years creating LetterFish, a collection of creatures whose component parts—ampersands, parentheses, letters and other typographic symbols—serve as a visual language unto themselves. Fourteen of these original prints will be on display. Joining the “art that swims”—as Moran calls his works—are six gastronomic narratives written by the Italian chef Fulvio Pierangelini, whose modern expertise will accompany a global survey of historical cookbooks—from Europe, China, South America, Russia and Japan—that are stored in the Vatican’s archives.

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.