One hundred works by Giuseppe Penone on display at the Ferrero Foundation in Alba

The Ferrero Foundation in Alba is hosting, from October 26, 2024 to February 16, 2025, the exhibition Giuseppe Penone. Imprints of Light, an extensive retrospective dedicated to one of the leading exponents of international contemporary art, conceived specifically for the Foundation’s spaces. Curated by Jonas Storsve, in collaboration with the artist, the exhibition presents more than one hundred works, offering a visual narrative of the extensive artistic production of Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, 1947), spanning a period from the 1960s to the present day. The theme of the imprint, central to the artist’s research, runs through his entire career: from the pioneering work Alpi Marittime of 1968, in which he experiments with direct contact between body and nature, to the Impronte di luce series made between 2022 and 2023, exhibited for the first time in Italy on this occasion.

The exhibition addresses the theme of the imprint through different artistic languages, from drawing to photography, from sculpture to carving, offering an overview of the techniques and materials used by Penone. The imprint, in his vision, becomes the symbol of the connection between different surfaces and finds its full expression in nature, conceived as a complex ecosystem in which every element, from man to leaves, from trees to earth, is interconnected. Completing the event is an illustrated catalog published by Skira, which collects images of the works on display and essays signed by the artist, the curator and scholars such as Jean-Christophe Bailly, Olivier Cinqualbre, Carlo Ossola and Francesco Guzzetti, the latter responsible for the scientific coordination of the exhibition.

Notes on the artist

Born in Garessio in 1947, Giuseppe Penone lives and works in Turin, where he held his first exhibitions between 1968 and 1969, revealing himself to be among the protagonists of Arte Povera. In his art, the process of actualization is an integral part of the work, and it is the actions performed by the artist in dialectical relationship with natural ones that give form to the material. The tree, “the first and simplest idea of vitality, of culture, of sculpture,” is a central element in his work. Penone represented Italy at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and has had solo exhibitions in major institutions in Italy and abroad, including Stedelijk Museum (1980), National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa (1983), Castello di Rivoli (1991), Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (1997), Centre Georges Pompidou (2004, 2022), Château de Versailles (2013), MART Rovereto (2016), Rijksmuseum (2016), Uffizi Gallery (2021), Philadelphia Museum of Art (2022), Galleria Borghese (2023).

Practical information

Free admission

Hours: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 3 - 7 p.m. / Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.

One hundred works by Giuseppe Penone on display at the Ferrero Foundation in Alba

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