Giuseppe Penone
Thoughts in the Roots
Serpentine, London
3 April – 7 September 2025
on Pressione (Pressure)
at Musée de Grenoble, 2014
Photo © Musée de Grenoble / ph. Jean-Luc Lacroix
Thoughts in the Roots at Sepentine South showcases Giuseppe Penone’s continued interest in the relationship between humans and the natural world, featuring works that range from 1969 to today.
A leading figure in the Arte Povera movement, born in Italy in the 1960s, that celebrates the simplicity of natural materials and artistic techniques, Giuseppe Penone experiments with a wide range of materials including wood, iron, wax, bronze, terracotta, marble and plaster, bringing their individual physical qualities to the fore.
Since its launch in the 1970s, Serpentine has maintained a long-standing commitment to bringing art out of the traditional gallery context and into the surrounding landscape, offering an opportunity for artists to engage with the immediate environment of Kensington Gardens.
Giuseppe Penone says: “To breathe the perfume of the leaves that cover the walls of the environment, to inhale the fragrance of the resin extracted from the trees and poured into an empty tree trunk, these are actions that allow us to perceive the space of Serpentine as a continuum with the nature of the park that surrounds it.”“All of my work is a trial to express my adherence and belonging to nature, and it is with this thought that I have chosen the works for the exhibition. The two paths that I have created, inside the gallery and outside of it, in the park, become two integrated gardens.”
The exhibition will embody the key principles of Giuseppe Penone’s work, namely the synergies between artistic and natural process, and the poetic relationship between humans and nature.
Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow), 1999
Wire mesh, laurel leaves, bronze
Total dimension determined by the space Installation view
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Photo © Archivio Penone
Since the 1970s, Giuseppe Penone has visualised breath as sculpture through different materials. Highlights will include Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow), a sensory installation made of laurel leaves that envelops the walls of the gallery. The artist compares the process of breathing to that of lost wax castings, in which metal flows into the mould and air is expelled from reeds, similar to lungs respiring. Reminding us of the fleeting nature of organic elements, the artwork is conceived as an immersive experience celebrating respiration and dissipating over time as the leaves lose their scent and colour.
Exploring the rapport between nature and body, Giuseppe Penone also uses organic materials to record his own breath. In Soffio di foglie (Breath of Leaves), the artist stacks boxwood leaves and lies down on the pile, breathing air into them. The imprint of his body and respiration is cast on the leaves, recording traces of his bodily presence.
A occhi chiusi (With Eyes Closed), 2009
Acrylic paint, glass microspheres,
acacia thorns on canvas; white Carrara marble
total dimensions 150 × 510 × 8 cm
Installation view at BnF Paris 2021
Photo © Archivio Penone
The exhibition opens with A occhi chiusi (With Eyes Closed), a work showcasing the artist’s combined interest in exploring the relationship between sight and the act of closing one’s eyes. His first exploration started in 1970 with Rovesciare i propri occhi (Reversing One’s Eyes), a black and white photograph that captured Giuseppe Penone looking directly at the viewer while wearing reflective contact lenses that rendered him blind. With the absence of vision, he creates a space for imagination within the mind. The numerous acacia thorns on canvas echo a synthesis of our senses in connection with nature too.
The vegetal world is a central subject in Giuseppe Penone’s work, citing the tree as the ‘primal and most simple idea of vitality, of culture, of sculpture’. He created his first Alberi (Trees) in 1969, by removing the wood along the outer growth rings of mature timber layer-by-layer. Knots were left in place as they emerged into branches, revealing how the tree would have appeared before it was felled.
The exhibition features Alberi libro (Book Trees), a sculpture consisting of twelve carved saplings placed side by side. ‘Every word for tree collects days of rain, sun mist, contains seasons, memories of places, of times experienced, that have a different meaning from person to person. They are words that fill the woods with their presence, invade the landscape, force us to an interpretation of motion, active, and push us for their correct interpretation in the forest’s care.’
Gesti vegetali (Vegetal Gestures), 1983-1985
Bronze, vegetation
Installation view at Galleria Borghese, Rome, 2023
Photo © Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Gesti vegetali (Vegetal Gestures) is a series of sculptures that encapsulates the gestures of plants and the movement of the body. Giuseppe Penone created the first drawings of Gesti vegetali in the 1980s, outlining the movement of the human body. He molded the work in clay before casting it in bronze, a material which the artist began utilising after realising the oxidation resembled the same colour as the bark of trees. Each sculpture is placed in a plant pot and positioned outside the gallery windows, in dialogue with the trees in Kensington Gardens.
Designed by Atelier Dyakova, an artist book will be published to accompany the exhibition. Featuring drawings and new writings from Giuseppe Penone alongside the contributions from Ludovico Einaudi and other contextualising texts. The publication also features an extended interview between Penone and Hans Ulrich Obrist discussing the artist’s inspiration and practice.
Giuseppe Penone has a longstanding relationship with Serpentine. He previously worked with Ecologies at Serpentine, which encompasses myriad convenings, networks, infrastructural and long-term research projects which hold ecology and the environment at their core. The artist was a participant in the 2011 Garden Marathon at Serpentine. This two-day event was an exploration of the concept of the garden. He is also featured in the book 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth, published by Serpentine and Penguin.
Bettina Korek, CEO, Serpentine, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine, say: “We are honoured to present Giuseppe Penone’s exhibition at Serpentine South. Thoughts in the Roots will celebrate his impressive five-decade practice and uncover the visual, tactile, and olfactory dimensions of the materials he explores. Revealing the fragile and poetic relationships between humans and nature, the exhibition will exemplify Penone’s experimental research and feature new works presented in the UK for the first time and extends into The Royal Parks. Following his participation in the Garden Marathon – our knowledge festive - at Serpentine in 2011 and his contribution to 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth, we’re thrilled that this leading figure of the Arte Povera movement, has accepted our invitation to bring the Park into the gallery and vice versa. Responding to the Spring and Summer seasons, Penone’s delicate landscape will nurture Serpentine’s mission of building new connections between artists and audiences.”
With a career spanning over five decades, Giuseppe Penone’s (b. 1947 lives and works in Turin, Italy) expansive oeuvre encompasses sculptures, drawings, painting, installations, and photography. Born in Garessio, a village near Cuneo, Italy, he is influenced by the forested region of Northern Italy.
Giuseppe Penone has been featured in solo exhibitions worldwide including at the Fondazione Ferrero, Alba (2024); at the Galleria Borghese, Rome (2023); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004, 2022); Philadelphia Museum of Art (2022); Villa Medici, Rome (2021); Palais d’léna – CESE, Paris, (2019); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2018); Chateau La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade (2017); Palazzo della Civiltà, Rome (2017); Louvre Abu Dhabi (2017); MART, Rovereto (2016); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2016); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2015); Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2015); the Beirut Art Center (2014); the Musée de Grenoble (2014); the Château de Versailles (2013); Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2013); Madison Square Park, New York (2013) and Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013). Giuseppe Penone has exhibited at Documenta V (1972), VII (1982), VIII (1987) and XIII (2012) and at the Venice Biennale in 1978, 1980, 1986, 1995 and 2007.
Thoughts in the Roots is curated by Claude Adjil, Curator at Large; and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artist Director with Alexa Chow, Assistant Exhibitions Curator.
SERPENTINE GALLERIES, LONDON
Serpentine South + extend beyond the gallery
to feature sculptures in the Royal Parks
Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA
