“Anything but marble” is curator Massimiliano Gioni’s concept behind “Matrice”, his exhibition of Giuseppe Penone’s radical art at Rome’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana. The man has his reasons: The palazzo, home to Fendi since 2015, is covered from wall to wall in white polished limestone.
Fortunately, maverick artist Penone is not intimidated by grandiose structures, having juxtaposed man-made artificiality with the natural world throughout his career. Thus a giant fir tree hovers on the vast empty terrace leading up to the neo-classical palace, breaking up the rigid contours of the building’s imposing appearance.
The show, which borders on a retrospective, derives its name from a 2015 work displayed on the ground floor, a hollowed tree trunk made from fir wood and bronze balancing on its branches like a trough.
Symbolising the blurred line between art and nature, it is the perfect emblem for the artist’s work, which has continually challenged the presuppositions of traditional aesthetics. One of Penone’s most important exhibitions in the Italian capital for decades, it has left its mark on the city in more ways than one. In his honour, Fendi has made one of his famous tree sculptures a permanent feature outside its Largo Goldoni flagship store. Weighing approximately 11 tons, it is the first new public artwork to be installed in Rome for 400 years, due to the city’s notoriously strict planning laws safeguarding its architecture and regional character.
For Penone, this is an artistic homecoming to the city of a lifelong fascination. For the trees he brings with him, it’s merely a taking of their rightful place in the eternal city.
“Matrice” by Giuseppe Penone is on display at Rome’s Palazzo della Civiltá until 16 July 2017