Giuseppe Penone
The Penone exhibition at Beirut Art Center aims to present a carefully chosen selection of works, ranging from monumental sculptures and in-situ installations, to sketches or “studies” and photographic documents of earlier projects, which will make his artistic process visible. New versions of past works will be produced locally; for instance a new edition of Propagazione will be drawn on one of the walls of Beirut Art Center. The exhibition will be a unique opportunity for the Lebanese public to interact with the works of one of the world’s most important and renowned visual artists, Giuseppe Penone, a principal figure in the Arte Povera, an artistic movement that flourished during the period of upheavals in the mid-sixties to mid-seventies in Italy. As the name indicates, the artists of this movement were inclined to use “poor” materials to produce, in large part, ephemeral and poetic works that deal with the notions of time, nature, and space. Throughout his long artistic career Penone raised such anthropological and cultural questions as the relationship between the body and nature, while expressing a poetic dimension that became the hallmark of his oeuvre. The public will also have the chance to meet the artist, who will be present for the opening of the show.