Giuseppe Penone: Trees, Arte Povera and Time

Giuseppe Penone

Giuseppe Penone is one of the artists who most powerfully transformed nature into a question of time, touch and memory. Associated with Arte Povera, Penone works with trees, wood, leaves, stone, bronze and organic processes to reveal what usually remains hidden: growth, pressure, transformation and the slow intelligence of matter.

This archive gathers articles on Penone’s art, from his relationship with trees and natural materials to works such as Tree of 12 Metres, where the artist carves into wood to uncover the life already contained inside it. In Penone’s practice, nature is not a theme placed in front of the viewer. It becomes an active collaborator, a living force that changes the meaning of sculpture itself.

To read Penone today is to understand why Arte Povera still matters: not as nostalgia for poor materials, but as a way of asking what art can reveal when it listens to time, bodies, trees and the silent resistance of the natural world. Start with The Enchanted Forest: Giuseppe Penone and the Power of Trees.

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Christelle Oyiri & Neva Wireko, Hauntology of an OG, 2025, installation view of the exhibition Inserzioni, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin, 2026. Courtesy Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Criticism & Essays Italian Art

Castello di Rivoli Has Rehung Arte Povera. Sung Tieu’s Ruin Complicates the Story

October 3, 2026 Antonino La Vela 61 Views 0 Comments Alighiero Boetti, Castello di Rivoli, Christelle Oyiri, Gilberto Zorio, Giuseppe Penone, Haris Epaminonda, Marcella Beccaria, Mario Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pino Pascali, Sung Tieu

A reconstructed Berlin corridor, a burning Memphis church and a rehung Arte Povera Collection reveal how Castello di Rivoli preserves and reframes history.