Giuseppe Penone

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.