Penone at the Palais d’Iéna

In 2013, Giuseppe Penone’s powerful tree sculptures placed on the Royal Way’s immaculate cut grass had created a sensation in Versailles by contrasting with André le Nôtre’s controlled landscaped gardens designed more than 400 years ago.

Penone’s collaboration with Versailles commenced in 1999 when he was able to buy two dead cedar tree trunks from the remains of a thunderstorm. Cedro di Versailles and Tea scorza e scorza (Between Bark and Bark) were made from those tree trunks and highlight the artist’s intention not to shape nature and alienate it from man but rather to show how man and nature bear resemblance to one another. 

In 2019 Penone later occupied the hypostyle hall of the Palais Iena which houses the French Economic Environmental Council with his monumental installation Matrice di linfa, a large scale tree sculpture cut open like sacrificial altar.

---

MORE ENTITRE