by Lars Holdgate // Aug. 28, 2025
Though the title, ‘Thoughts in the Roots,’ might suggest otherwise, no roots are to be seen in Giuseppe Penone’s exhibition at Serpentine. In trees and branches, their extensions are visible, but the rest is hidden beneath the surface.
“Arte Povera” is a term that was coined by Germano Celant in the late 1960s and used to describe the radical and anti-establishment art movement, humble in its materials, that was prominent for the following decade and for which Penone was an important figure. An emphasis was placed on the social and cultural shifts at the time, though Italy had, in this respect, never really found stability. From its unification in 1861, there were strong divides between rich and poor. These socioeconomic differences tended to materialize geographically, as wealth was concentrated in cities while rural areas were associated with the poor. Despite this, nature came to be an important symbol and instrument in the narrative that was created to unite what were once individual states into an imagination of Italy as a population. If we view the exhibition and works from this perspective, as we might feel invited to do, then we will see how trees and organic matter are implicated in questions of life and death, in the same way that poverty and wealth are. Our understanding of these existences is mediated by their visibility. Like the roots, the works go beyond what is visible.
As I enter, a skylight that seems as though it had been installed especially for this work beams down onto a tree stump. It is partially hollowed out with a small island of hacked wood emerging from its center. It looks like a crown or a city skyline; one that is surrounded by a sirupy moat of solidified amber tree sap. This clash of textures–hard, dry, hollow, splintery, on the one hand and saturated, sticky, clear and dense, on the other–makes me think what it would be like if someone had hollowed me out and filled me with my own blood.
Against the back wall hangs a tryptic. The central panel is marked by white mono-tone marbled veins. The two on either side are adorned with acacia thorns–individually, painstakingly removed by hand. Collectively, they create a scene resembling the panicked order of birds migrating. Looking to my right, I am drawn to a large work that snakes its way around five small walls, guiding me into the next room where tapestry-like canvases hang. They are emotive despite lacking grandeur. In the context of this retrospective, works from the ‘verde del bosco’ series, made years apart, hang together, telling both a story and history. The past seems to show more optimism with its proud dark trees.
Behind me stand 33 perfectly filled terracotta pots, from which three metal sculptures emerge: one standing, one lying down and one squatting. In ‘Gesti Vegetali,’ different plants protrude from each of these frail metal bodies that look as if they were made of tree bark. Domestic and wild growth converge, showing different manifestations of life as it ages. Penone literally depicts the intertwining of bodies and plants: a relationship that takes up an important place in the work on display here.
The main room is testament to this. Initially, I wasn’t sure how to approach the idea of “breathing as a sculptural act” that the exhibition’s introductory statement prepared me for. But when I experienced ‘Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow)’ (2000), I immediately understood what was meant. It was as if I had stepped into a pyramid’s tomb or an energy-efficient sauna that was operated by the stimulation of sight and smell alone.
On a large chunk of wood stand 12 tree trunks like organ pipes. Each one has been cut into a square with a triangular length taken out of it, each exposing its center: a tree that, despite its smoothness and immaturity, feels wise, as young emerges from old. Small traces of glue or tree sap are visible around their silhouettes. The texture of delicate waves on their surfaces creates a mesmerizing shimmer that moves as I do. The musky smell seeps out from the panels that cover the room. Each one houses hundreds if not thousands of laurel leaves. The dark, camouflaged palette also mutes the light, thereby directing it towards the golden altar of trees. Though the wood and the leaves are dead, their presence is so apparent that it exudes an overwhelming feeling of life that seems to have been captured at a constant. I get lost in the saturated environment of this room and each time I exhale, it feels like my breath shapes a mould made of invisible matter that hangs in the air.
I breathe more lightly as I leave; not that the air is any different. I am hit by the light that crashes in through a facade of windows that opens up onto Kensington Gardens. The separation between park and gallery melts away, artificially placing the trees in their natural habitat. It is delightful. As I linger, I almost wish it was darker so that I could feel more alone with the exhibition’s forest-like mysticism. I am slightly irritated by the people walking outside who remind me there is a world out there.
I join them and three more sculptures outside–maybe I was wrong about assuming a separation. Further out stand ‘Idee di pietra’: two trees that carry stones in their crowns, while rocks pepper the ground around them and are sat on by picnicking picnickers and playing children. With its bark completely charred black, ‘Albero folgorato’ looks like a tree that has been hit by lightning. The point of impact opens up like a flower in bloom, revealing a perfectly golden center that glows white as it absorbs all the light on this sunny day. Penone crafts the sculpture in such a way that the light has no choice other than to be manipulated. Despite its seemingly natural form, the tree is made of bronze. It has an air of reserved pride that feels like an inversion of the Siegessäule in Berlin, despite their similarities.
In all its facets, this exhibition fulfills its goal of implicating our bodies in sculpture. It made me appreciate wood as a material–it is democratic, it is valuable and it transcends time and place. The deceiving similarities between some of the displayed works–that are implicitly separated by decades–present an entrance into powerful environments where materiality and reproductions makes us question the bias of time. Above all, Penone, for me, emerges as an alchemist. He exerts respectful control over nature to not only present wood as metal and metal as wood, but actually crafts gold out of wood and heat out of smell. He makes me question what I see, even though it’s maybe less important than my bodily sensations.
Exhibition Info
Serpentine Galleries
Giuseppe Penone: ‘Thoughts in the Roots’
Exhibition: Apr. 3-Sept. 7, 2025
serpentinegalleries.org
Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA, UK, click here for map
