Artist: Giuseppe Penone
Date: 1988
Museum: Magazzino Italian Art (Cold Spring, United States)
Technique: Shell
Penone grew up in the Maritime Alps on Italy’s northwestern Ligurian coast, not far from Turin. Part of the artist’s ongoing engagement with nature, Penone began his now iconic Alberi (Trees) series in 1969. Through a process he defines as debarking, Penone carves into the wood follow- ing knots created by the earliest branches of growth. For Penone, this process allows for the trunk and branches of the earliest form of the tree to re-emerge. “The tree is a being that memorizes its form in its structure,” explains the artist; “it is the perfect sculpture. Every year of his growth is present within him. The memory of his existence is conserved in his substance: my task is to reveal it.” In this work, Penone worked with a dead tree he found. The discovery of the grenade shell and barbed wire, visible near the base of the resulting sculpture, speaks to the embattled history of northern Italy during World War II, and especially of the anti-fascist Resistance, which often consolidated in rural areas around urban centers under Mussolini’s regime and German occupation. Alongside Penone’s other works and actions, the Alberi exemplify Penone’s deep interest in nature and our connection to it.
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