Giuseppe Penone presents his sculptures in the Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles hosts the Italian artist Giuseppe Penone for a major exhibition, presented mostly in the gardens and also in the Palace itself. Until 31 October 2013, Penone will make the Park the setting of his tree sculptures in which he inserts heavy rocks.

Twenty sculptures, some of which have been produced specifically for this exhibition, will be installed along the royal walk that leads in a long perspective from the Palace to the Grand Canal, and also in the Star Grove. „Magnitude and Elegance – these characteristics are represented by Versailles aswell as Penone’s art“, said Catherine Pégard, president of the Versailles.

His large-scale works are set down in the Park designed by Le Nôtre like new markers that will find here their right place, in subtle harmony with this prestigious site. Born into a village of Piedmont, the region where he still lives, Penone was associated in his early works with Arte Povera. This movement brought together Italian artists from the end of the 1960s who sought to renew their relationship with materials and invent new visual languages. They also endeavoured to propose a different way of seeing landscapes which took the form of works closely slotted into the natural elements.

The first experimental works of Penone were executed in the forest, in direct interaction with trees. For example, a bronze hand inserted in a trunk modified the growth of the tree. Only photographs and objects have survived from these works (1968-70). Thereafter, the tree became the artist’s leading motif. Its foliage, the verticality of its trunk and the structure of its branches are its essential forms. The tree embodies the encounter between nature and culture. Penone creates his trees in bronze, a long-lasting material, “a material that fossilises the plant,” as the artists says.

Giuseppe Penone standing in front of his work "Tra scorza e scorza"