ART-PRESENTATION: Giuseppe Penone
In an oeuvre spanning more than 40 years, Giuseppe Penone has explored the subtle levels of interplay between man, nature, and art. His work represents a poetic expansion of Arte Povera’s radical break with conventional media, emphasizing the involuntary processes of respiration, growth, and aging that are common to both human being and tree.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marian Goodman Gallery
Two simultaneous exhibitions by Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman Gallery, “Fui, Sarò, Non Sono” in London and “Ebbi, Avrò, Non Ho” in Paris. These new exhibitions bring together a selection of works related to the sense of touch and which take their form from specific gestures made by the artist’s hand. The works presented in both exhibitions (the titles of which refer to past, future and present) reveal that for Giuseppe Penone gestures and tactile perceptions are connected to individuality and time. The London gallery presents works emblematic of Penone’s interest in the metaphysical relationship of his body to the living ecosystem. A primary example of this, “Trattenere 6, 8, 12 anni di crescita (Continuerà a crescere tranne che in quel punto)” (2004-16), in 1968, Penone attached a bronze cast of his hand to the trunk of a young tree. 6 years later, he cast this tree in situ, and again at years 8 and 12, recording the growing symbiosis of his hand and the tree enveloping it. The work comprises these three casts made in the past 12 years. While the artist’s grasping hand hinders the natural growth, each tree adapts to the constraints of the metallic touch, subsequently embracing and absorbing the hand. Here, both the human body and the tree are simultaneously metamorphosed to become one inseparable entity. Its sculptural identity continues to organically evolve and link its past, present and future. The Paris gallery presents a selection of works where Giuseppe Penone makes the human body’s relationship to the natural world palpable with the clear and resonant print of his hand. The golden leaf of “Spoglia d’oro” (2001) is formed by the artist, leaving the imprints of his palm. In “Germinazione” (2005), a series of six hanging wall sculptures in acrylic resin, the imprints of the artist’s hands are preserved in casts of tree trunks and branches. Playing on the relation between the container and the contained, the sculptures “Il vuoto del vaso” (2005), brings together terracotta vases and x-ray plates. While the pots bear witness to the pressure applied on clay, the accompanying x-rays reveal the artist’s hands, making visible an invisible and fleeting process.
Info: Marian Goodman Gallery, 5-8 Lower John Street, London, Duration: 8/9-22/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, and Galerie Marian Goodman, 79 Rue du Temple, Paris, Duration 9/9-22/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, http://mariangoodman.com
