Pope Leo XIV marked his 71st birthday at the Vatican with the launch of an art exhibit focused on water at the Vatican Apostolic Library on Monday.
The pontiff inaugurated the exhibit, "AQVA," part of the theme "Catastrophe and Wonder," which will be on display at the Vatican Library through May 14, 2027. The exhibit includes artwork highlighting a "reflection on water as both a threat and a resource" and reflects a recent focus on promoting contemporary art at the Vatican.
'The pope's library is a heart'
The occasion also marked Leo's first visit to the library since his election to the papacy in 2025. In his remarks, he described the Vatican Library — the pope's library — as a beating heart and a symbol of life.
"How should we describe the pope's library? I will use a metaphor: The Apostolic Library is a heart," Leo said. "A beating heart is a symbol of life, and it results from two opposing movements, systole and diastole: a contraction and a relaxation, a movement towards the center and another towards the periphery."
The pope then explained that the heart's movements of contraction and relaxation are mirrored in both the quiet atmosphere of the Vatican Library and its engagement with human history.
Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, the Holy See's librarian and archivist, reflected on the library's and the Church's role in promoting dialogue, as shown by the new exhibit.
"This exhibition, among other things, precisely by putting together a centuries-old library and contemporary artists, says exactly this: Generations are intertwined. Let us not pretend to be men and women alone, because we are already in the company of all generations, and to them we are indebted," Pagazzi told EWTN News at the inauguration.
The exhibit features contemporary art, including an enormous art installation inspired by Gustave Doré's iconic 1866 wood engraving of the Great Flood, a collection of short culinary stories by Italian chef Fulvio Pierangelini, and marine artwork by American typographer Bill Moran as well as pieces from the Vatican's permanent collections, such as historic cookbooks from around the world centered on seafood.
The pope also encouraged all present, particularly the Vatican Library employees, to "keep finding new pathways towards reconciliation."
JR, a French artist who created the exhibit's installation of an ocean wave on the outside of the library, reflected on his role as a bridge-builder.
"Well, you know, as an artist, my role is to create bridges, and so I feel in my place, like where I need to be working, even if it's pretty intimidating to work in a place like the Vatican," JR told EWTN News.
More room at the Vatican Library
In a document issued the same day, Leo decreed that a new building be constructed in Vatican City to house the Vatican Library's growing manuscript collection. He noted that current storage was insufficient, citing Pope Francis' 2024 move of parts of the library to the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary building near the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
"Unprecedented opportunities have arisen to create new facilities within the territory of the Vatican City State, which are undoubtedly preferable, for a variety of reasons, to the solution that had previously been identified," the pope wrote. The new building will be located in an area currently reserved for the parking of service vehicles.
Tweet< async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">
Magdalena Wolinska-Riedi contributed to this report.
