Giuseppe Penone. Sculture di linfa. La Biennale di Venezia. 52ª Esposizone internazionale d'arte. Padiglione italiano

The path of the artist's research, Leonardesque in its imprint, is translated into a continuous relationship with the elements of nature and the force of matter.
One of the leading representatives of Arte Povera is the Turin-based artist Giuseppe Penone, who has coherently developed the principles of the artistic movement identified by Germano Celant in 1966-67, which lie in "the use of simple, natural, antiartistic materials to emphasize its energy and analyze natural processes." This is exactly what Penone does when he outlines his hand with nails in a tree trunk or flanks the growth of a tree with the human body ("Working on Trees", 1968), signals the relations between the body and the external world ("Turning One's Eyes Inside Out", 1970) or explores the epidermis photographically ("Developing One's Skin", 1970). He then extends his exploration in depth ("Landscapes of the Brain", photographs of the inside of the skull correlated with the leaves of a tree).