Giuseppe Penone

Giuseppe Penone

(Garessio, Cuneo, 1947)

Giuseppe Penone’s art has always focused on the deep connection between humankind and nature, a highly contemporary theme. From his earliest works, he correlates the time of the human being with the long times of nature and seeks contact with the flow of an invisible energy. His earliest works are actions made in the woods of Piedmont, his home region: starting from personal reflections related to the cultural context in which he grew up and debuted as a sculptor, he bases his research on the relationship with the earth, the plant world and the landscape.

For representatives of Arte Povera movement, like Penone, artistic experience coincides with the actual experience of one’s own feeling and living, the works can become sensorial extensions that the viewer himself is invited to extend as well. This creates a chain reaction in which the flows of energy grow, according to an orientation of maximum openness to the dynamism of life and ideas.

At the Castello di Rivoli, this happens with the work Breathing the Shadow (1999): the walls of the room that houses it are completely covered with thousands of laurel leaves, contained within thin metal nets. Through the simple act of breathing, the work becomes physically part of each visitor: the scent of the laurel enters the lungs and for each person evokes different feelings and memories.  On one of the walls, moreover, a gilded bronze sculpture, representing a lung made of leaves, seems to reinforce the sense of a deep relationship between the individual and nature.

The perception of the smell of laurel allows the viewer to define the space in which he finds himself. As Penone writes, “A work of art is based on the senses and the logic derived from them.” He thus erases the superiority of sight, which has always been the privileged sense of knowledge, to favor an equal use of all senses.

The act of breathing “as sculpture” is the basis of Clay Breath H (1978). The work has the form of a vase at human height on which, on the side, one can see the imprint of the artist’s body and face, impressed on the clay. Taking inspiration from the glassblower’s work, the artist creates a volume that tends to represent the emission of breath. The clay used to create the sculpture refers to the earth. In the various works he has dedicated to Breaths, as in this case, Penone has retrieved from the world of mythology the image of the breath as the origin of humankind, a vital and energetic element.

Another important cycle of works is dedicated to Trees, which the artist has been working on from 1969 until more recent years. The works of the Collection 5-meter Tree (1969-1970), and 11-meter Tree (1969-1989), belong to this group. In order to make them, he starts from industrial-type wooden beams and through sculptor gestures – such as etching, carving and digging – he brings to light the trunk and branches of the original tree, which are recognizable from the knots visible in the wood.