Artwork: Giuseppe Penone, Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow), Serpentine Gallery, London, 2025
A major exhibition by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone is now showing at the Serpentine Gallery in London, Thoughts in the Roots. Penone is renowned for his connection to the Arte Povera movement of the 1960s, which prioritised simplicity in natural materials and artistic techniques, and for his exploration of the connection of humans and nature, often aligning the tree with the human form. As Penone says: “All my work is a trial to express my adherence and belonging to nature…”
One significant installation in the exhibition is Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow). This installation was first created in 1999, made of a wire mesh grid lining the walls and either laurel or bay leaves placed in the grid, the scent permeating the air. A sculpture of lungs shaped with gold leaf is placed at roughly the height of an adult, representing the process of breathing. From 1978 onwards Penone began creating a series of sculptures Soffi (Breaths) focusing on the breath, the idea of the exhalation of breath being an invisible sculptural presence and the classical idea of humans being created from breath and breath being a vital element. In these early work Penone would visualise the moment of exhalation by creating an imprint of his body in clay and with breath expelled from his lungs. In Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow), Penone focuses on the process of inhalation, where the scent of the leaves becomes the presence or conscious reminder to the viewer of the act of breathing in an evocative and poetic imagining.
