Giuseppe Penone (b. 1947) is an Italian sculptor who began his career in the Arte Povera movement in the late 1960s.
Arte Povera established a new language of art using humble, everyday materials and organic components. Penone’s early performance-based works evolved in direct response to the forests near his native village of Garessio, where he interacted with water, rocks and trees. Penone has been casting trees in bronze since the 1980s, describing their organic shape as “the prototype of the ideal sculpture”.
Standing over twelve metres tall, Penone’s work in Helsinki Biennial is a sculptural representation of metamorphosis through which the artist reflects on the inseparable connection between humans and nature.
Photo: Laurence Sudre
Giuseppe Penone: Luce e Ombra (Light and Shadow), 2014, detail. Helsinki Biennial 8.6.–21.9.2025, Esplanade Park. Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo: HAM / Helsinki Biennial / Sonja Hyytiäinen
Luce e Ombra (Light and Shadow), 2014
Artwork location: Esplanade Park
Standing over twelve metres tall in Esplanade Park, Luce e Ombra is a sculptural representation of metamorphosis through which the artist reflects on the inseparable connection between humans and nature. Penone believes that human-defined dualisms and interspecies boundaries are fundamentally artificial, because all things are inextricably intertwined. His works examine the slow transformation of materials by time and human activity, while also reflecting on similarities between living organisms such as trees and the human body. The concentric lines of fingerprints are remarkably similar to a tree’s growth rings – but such fleeting affinities are overshadowed by the dark, lingering imprint of destruction that humans have left on nature.
The leafless crown of the bronze tree reaches for the sky like a grasping hand, while lower down, a nodding outgrowth of foliage gathers light vital for life. Perched atop of the tree is a perfect granite sphere that appears to have fallen from the sky. Contrasting with the organic forms, its pristine geometrical shape suggests something sculpted by human hands, or perhaps by time. The sturdy bronze trunk is firmly rooted in the dark bowels of the earth, which harbour a vital force that spurs growth towards the light, even in the harshest of conditions.