The Italian artist Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, 1947) created a work of art inspired by nature for Rotterdam’s cultural axis. The sculpture Elevazione is situated alongside the Westersingel near the Eendrachtsweg. It consists of a bronze tree trunk encircled by five living trees. The bronze cast and the trees have a symbiotic relationship.
Penone had the idea for the sculpture when he came across a fallen tree in the woods near Turin. The tree’s extremely long roots had grown above ground, so that the tree was not anchored in the ground. Penone has conserved the extraordinary form of this tree – a 9-metre high trunk with almost 6-mtre long roots – by casting it in bronze.
In Rotterdam, Penone has combined this bronze copy of nature with five living trees: an existing beech and four new alders. The bronze tree is fixed at a height of more than one metre, floating above the ground. The ends of the bronze roots pass through the living trees. As the trees continue to grow the bronze will leave a trace in their bark. Time is an important factor in this art work: after several years the passage of time will be visible in the tree trunks.
Jaar
2001
Location
Westersingel 95
Afmeting
9 x 5.5 x 5.6 m
Material
bronze
Opdrachtgever
Gemeente Rotterdam
Owner
Gemeente Rotterdam
The location
Giuseppe Penone has created a considerable body of work, but very little of his work can be seen in public spaces in the Netherlands. One sculpture, a life-size bronze beech, has been in the sculpture forest near the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo since 1988. The appreciation for Penone’s impressive oeuvre made the committee of the Internationale Beelden Collectie approach him with the request to create a sculpture for Rotterdam. In the design Penone created, the relationship between the natural and the artificial world is dramatised. With the chosen location, the slope of Westersingel, Penone underlines that there is room in the heart of the city for a sculpture that explores the power of nature. There is enough space to do justice to the bronze tree while giving the newly planted trees a chance to grow. The presence of a young beech tree on the embankment was the deciding factor. Penone wanted to remain true to his principle of making as much use as possible of the existing situation and decided that the tree would be part of his work.
In the execution phase of Elevazione, Penone showed himself to be an artist of integrity. While in Turin the execution of the bronze tree took place, in Rotterdam a start had to be made on planting the young trees. However, the planned date of unveiling in mid-summer was unfavorable for the still fragile plantings: they would probably not survive and would have to be replaced by new specimens in the fall. This was unacceptable to the artist: no tree needed to die for his work of art. At Penone’s intercession, the unveiling was postponed to November 2001.
Giuseppe Penone
Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, 1947) is the son of a farmer in the countryside near Turin. He has developed a close relationship with nature and many of his works are based on ecological processes.
Penone is associated with the Italian movement Arte Povera. Creation, metamorphosis and the passage of time are important concepts in his work. His sculptures refer to the mysteries of nature: flow, transformation, growth and erosion. Many of his works deal with the fleeting nature of man’s existence.In 1967 he began fusing natural and synthetic elements in order to influence the growth process. For example, his work La mano affronda nel tronco dell’albero (The Hand Fused with the Tree Trunk), executed in Piemonte in 1968, consists of a bronze hand gripping the trunk of a sapling. Over the years tree and the hand have become fused, illustrating man’s symbiotic relationship with nature. Around 1969 he began work on a series entitled Alberi (Trees), in which he exposed the original trees within wooden beams. He has also made casts using parts of his body. In 1972 he grew pumpkins inside a mould of his face, so that they took on the same form, and in 1978 he cast his own breath. Penone places great importance on the physical contact between the artist and his materials. He makes tangible things that are not tangible in reality.
Giuseppe Penone has always remained true to the methods and principles of Arte Povera. The sculpture he created for Rotterdam in 2001 relates to the same concept with which he began his career and illustrates his vision of sculpture: ‘A sculptor’s task is to reveal the latent image in nature.’
