February/March 2008 February/March 2008
Giuseppe Penone –
Poet of the Uncanny
Giuseppe Penone, originally included by the art critic Germano Celant in the movement of “Arte Povera”, is most
celebrated for his investigation of the relation between nature and man. His art is often classified as Land Art or
Process Art. Villa Medici, home of the Académie de France à Rome, is hosting a magnificent journey through the
evocative production of this timeless artist.
Lorenzo Marsili
We enter from the decayed renaissance
meanders of 16th century Villa Medici,
careful not to slip over a Roman column
lying flat on the tight corridor leading to
the first room of the exhibition. Staring at
this dead ancient marble it seems to re-
veal itself as the surreal end of a pipe, per-
haps a beak utilising a hollowed Roman
column once bringing water from the
nearby house reservoir. Or maybe, and
this thought suddenly crosses our mind,
we have already entered the exhibition,
where the works are arranged by the art-
ist himself for these spectacular spaces,
and this is the first to cross our path. This
ambiguity, which must not be untied, is
the key to the whole journey, and indeed
to the art of Giuseppe Penone, this art-
ist who respects the craft of traditional
sculpture and believes in the poetry of
nature. And it is in fact towards simple re-
ality, sheer immanence, that the works of
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this exhibition force our attention. Life in
its unfolding, its growth and its mutation;
life that itself become, in this arte povera “What’s an idea that
where wood and natural forms predomi-
nate, the material of artistic creation, re-
appears suddenly
turning us to a basic condition of affinity or after a long a
with the world.
reflection? An idea
Accessing the first room a wide rectangle that has been formed
composed of several blocs of tree bark
cast in bronze lies on the floor; Lo Spazio
by adding up the
della Scultura. One section is raised from myriad of preceding
the ground by about half a meter and
sustained by several curved branches
thoughts, polished by
and covered in animal skin, distinguish- the passage of time,
able from the bronze-cast bark by its soft
curves and opaque response to the light
compacted by the
of the room. Seen from the distance it weight of memories,
is an uncanny presence, somewhat re-
calling, in form, Salvador Dali’s surreal
damaged by doubts
elephants with their long thin legs. But and incertitude? It is
this juxtaposition, the panels lying on the
the stone of a river
appearing between
the branches of a tree”
floor and the suspended, emerging pio-
neer in their centre, serves to make the
structure come alive, assuming not only a
strong dynamic element, a forceful three-
dimensionality, but also the suggestion
of life and breathing. This feeling is fur-
ther reinforced by the contrast offered by
the naked, cold, and sickly yellow stone
of the section of the pavement left visi-
ble, like an open wound, under the raised
panel.
Proceeding through our labyrinth we
reach a raised and wide corridor, where
branches and leaves of all sizes parade
in a line of anthropomorphic statues like
soldiers under review; it is the series Pelle
di Foglie, once again cast in bronze, a ma-
terial which, according to Penone, “re-
sembles the natural”, not only because if
left in the open it reacts to the weather
oxidising and changing in colour, but be-
cause the process of fusion dates to an
ancient past of animistic believes. An as-
semblage of leaves reminds us of a human
face, another of a heart; branches as wav-
ing hands, saplings as marching feet; the
proportions those of a body. Despite the
ing our attention to the very aliveness of
the breathing of the cosmos around us
that so much characterises this art, is of-
fered as a metaphor for the human proc-
ess of growth itself; Penone, in a beautiful
text in the exhibition catalogue, writes:
“what’s an idea that appears suddenly or
after a long a reflection? An idea that has
been formed by adding up the myriad of
preceding thoughts, polished by the pas-
sage of time, compacted by the weight of
memories, damaged by doubts and incer-
titude…? It is the stone of a river appear-
ing between the branches of a tree…”
The very last room of the exhibition, an
isolated, minute closed space at the far
end of the gardens, features the evoca-
tive Pietra di Foglie. It is a simple com-
position, a large rock, seemingly from the
banks of a river, surrounded by a myr-
simplicity and familiarity of the materials iad of fallen laurel leaves. The crisp but
the artist magically draws out the force- soothing scent of laurel (but which could
ful uncanny of the natural, in a wizardry equally well be musk, cedar, or again eu-
giving life to the inert, conferring it the
status of creature. And indeed, there is a
calyptus, to each his childhood) contrib-
utes to making the scene appear perfectly
strange foreignness of company to these simple and real. And indeed, if visual art
statues, not too unlike the sudden emo-
tion, a mixture of fear, surprise, and cu-
has traditionally favoured what Hegel
called the “theoretical sense”, of sight,
riosity, of abruptly running into a mys- the art of Penone returns us to the mate-
terious person on a desolated mountain
path. This near becoming-man of a tree is
rial truth of touch, and smell. The invoca-
tion that comes from this room, as from
at basis of another of Penone’s works, the the rest of the exhibition, is to open our
celebrated Alpi Marittime, where a se-
ries of interventions of the artists are di-
senses on our next stroll out, halting, still
in body but voyaging in mind, in front of
rectly inscribed in the process of growth a pine tree shaken by the wind.
of the tree; he has inserted the cast of his
hand in the trunk, which will continue to The enchantment of Penone, and the
grow with the exception of this point; or deepest meaning of the adjective “pov-
he hugs a tree marking his profile on the
bark, so that his action will be conserved
era” to describe this art, is to open up a
whole realm of possibility from the very
with its growth. everydayness of our lives, returning our
The exhibition continues in the marvel-
gaze modified to the world around us.
The final empty corridor which we pass
lous gardens of the villa, where the lav- leaving the exhibition offers a good ex-
ishly decorated internal façade of the
palace finally becomes fully visible.
ample of the propaedeutic function of
this art. The walls of the room are on one
Scattered over the grass, broken frag- side built of ochre bricks, on the other
ments of Roman columns, like in a pit of painted of milky white. On this second
sacred capitols, a quarry of Ionic marble. side, breaking the parade of plaster, is a
Suddenly staring at us is Idee di Pietra, mysterious protuberance of stone, like
like a delayed contrapposto to the flat in- the amputated limb of an old arch, or the
Opposite page: Idee di pietra, above: Lo spazio della scultura, below: Pelle di foglie
stallation of the first room; a solemn tree, last survivor of an architrave that once
cast in bronze, rises from this low garden sustained a lower ceiling. The profound
weighted by large river stones laid on its disruption offered to the perceptual act
branches. The tree appears pulled back by this piece of stone, unwanted and
towards the ground, constrained, im- unreasonable, without function or aes-
mobilised. Paradoxically, precisely this thetic, is an awareness that must be cul-
attempt to halt and immortalise the tree tivated through a particular attention to
seems to make it appear even more alive, the breathing of the space that surrounds
mobile, symphonic. The very necessity us, an inclination to its absorption and
of having to anchor the tree with heavy investigation. Almost a subversive stance
rocks cannot, in a Heraclitean game of in an age marked by fast consumption
the opposites, but remind us that this tree and instantaneous gratification.
is ultimately something alive, making us
believe, in a sudden moment of ecstasy, Giuseppe Penone
that without those grey anchors it would 30th January – 25th March
fly off, or grow at magical speed and break Académie de France à Rome, Villa Medici
the windows of the surrounding palace.
But perhaps the strange union of wood
and stone appears to betray a complicit
understanding, the forging of a unity
not absurd but harmonious; “after hav-
ing tried to avoid the obstacles present
in the surrounding environment”, write
Penone, “the tree absorbs them”. This
process of absorption, stressing the life-
process of the natural, here again turn-
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