Giuseppe Penone Sculture di linfa

dimensione ambiente/dimensions variable

One of the most important protagonists of the Arte Povera movement in the 1960s and 70s, Giuseppe Penone has brought the relationship between man and nature back to the center of contemporary art. The themes that appear most frequently in his works are the growth of vegetal organisms as if shaped by time, the distinction between identity and sameness and the concept of the footprint as the boundary between the internal and the external, between body and nature. Initially also drawing on his own expressive languages of Body Art, Land Art and international Conceptual Art, the artist today creates almost exclusively sculptures and installations. "Sculture di linfa" is a large environmental installation composed of various elements, occupying the space of a room. The walls are entirely covered with tanned leather, made to adhere to the bark of trees to repeat its design (Corteccia di cuoio, 2007). The walkable floor is made of slabs of white Carrara marble, carved in order to create a relief of the imprint of the human brain in the center (Pelle di marmo-cervello, 2007). Finally, extended horizontally on the marble, are two wooden beams carved by the artist to reveal in negative the original form of the trunk of the sapling containing the resin (Scultura di linfa). As with many other works by Penone, not only is the sense of sight involved but also smell (the odor of the leather) and touch (the relief of marble underfoot). The leather, which is animal skin, was modeled with a plant extract, according to a traditional tanning process, and is associable by analogy both to bark (the skin of trees) whose form it reproduces, and human skin, through touch, and therefore to the action of sculpting. The marble too, especially through its veining, evokes the impression of skin. The resin instead represents the vital fluid that flows inside trees, like a vegetable blood.

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C. Grenier (ed.), Giuseppe Penone: Rétrospective, Centre Pompidou, exhibition catalogue (Paris, Centre Pompidou), Paris 2004. I. Gianelli (ed.), Giuseppe Penone. Sculture di linfa. LII Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte La Biennale di Venezia, exhibition catalogue (Venice, Venice Biennale, 52nd International Art Exhibition), Milano 2007. G. Maraniello (ed.), Giuseppe Penone. Scritti (1968-2008), Bologna 2009; L. Busine (ed.), Giuseppe Penone, Milan 2012. Giuseppe Penone: Scultura, exhibition catalogue (Rovereto, MART-Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto), Milan 2016.

Foto Patrizia Tocci

Purchased from the artist

Installation