Vatican Library Opens 'AQVA' Exhibition With Giant Wave by Artist JR

Pope Leo XIV inaugurated AQVA, the first exhibition in the Vatican's five-year "Catastrophe and Wonder" series, on Monday morning at the Vatican Apostolic Library. The rooms of the library have been turned into an immersive experience devoted to water's double character — as a giver of life and as a destructive force.

A giant wave titled Diluvium, installed on the library's 16th-century facade by French visual artist JR, greets visitors, who pass through a curtain to enter the exhibition itself. Inside, they encounter works by American typographer Bill Moran and Italian chef Fulvio Pierangelini.

JR said the wave speaks to present-day anxieties as much as to nature, invoking climate change and the rapid advance of artificial intelligence. He noted that the image draws on a page by Gustave Doré, and that much of the knowledge housed in the library rests on fragile sheets of paper that water could wash away.

Moran described designing a space where visitors first feel overwhelmed by the jewel-like quality of plexiglass before moving into a quieter zone, descending from the water's surface into its depths.

Father Giacomo Cardinali, deputy prefect at the Vatican Apostolic Library, said fear can strip life of its taste and beauty if allowed to take up too much room, and that the exhibition's itinerary shows books and water can have a positive relationship.

Pierangelini said his contribution grew from Aquatilium animalium historiae, a 16th-century book on fish and marine life by Italian physician Ippolito Salviani, which the exhibition marks on the 470th anniversary of its publication. Having lived by the sea and run a fish restaurant, he said it was natural to tell stories inspired by the book's fish.

A section of the show is dedicated to the library's Restoration Lab, where water appears once more in two roles: as a threat to ancient volumes and as a tool used to preserve them. Officials said the wider five-year cycle will examine the duality of elements including water, fire, light, insects and human intervention, all of which can endanger old books.

The exhibition is organised by the Vatican Apostolic Library with Fondazione Roma and the support of Intesa Sanpaolo bank. It opens to the public from September 25, 2026, to May 14, 2027, on selected Fridays and Saturdays to be announced.