Giuseppe Penone: Thoughts in the Roots – A Dialogue Between Nature and Sculpture at Serpentine
This spring and summer, Serpentine Gallery South presents ‘Thoughts in the Roots’, the most comprehensive institutional exhibition of Giuseppe Penone’s work ever staged in London. Running from 3 April to 7 September 2025, the exhibition unfolds across Serpentine South and extends into the surrounding landscape of Kensington Gardens, where monumental sculptures appear in direct dialogue with the natural world.
A leading figure of the Arte Povera movement, Penone has spent over five decades exploring the poetic interplay between humanity and nature. With Thoughts in the Roots, his vision takes root both inside and outside the gallery, highlighting the artist’s lifelong fascination with organic materials and their transformative, often symbolic, potential.
Giuseppe Penone, Albero folgorato (Thunderstruck Tree), 2012. Bronze and gold. ©Photo: George Darrell. Courtesy Giuseppe Penone and Serpentine.
A Sculptural Landscape
Three large-scale bronze sculptures anchor the exhibition outdoors, blurring the line between art and environment. Albero folgorato (Thunderstruck Tree, 2012), a cast of a hundred-year-old Belgian willow struck by lightning and adorned with gold-leafed wounds, stands as a testament to the invisible forces of nature. It is presented alongside two works from the Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone) series: Ciliegio (Cherry Tree) and 1891 kg di luce (1891 kg of Light), each balancing monumental river stones in the crooks of tree-like branches—a poetic balancing act between weight and delicacy, nature and thought.
Penone reflects, “All of my work is a trial to express my adherence and belonging to nature… The two paths that I have created, inside the gallery and outside of it, in the park, become two integrated gardens.”
Giuseppe Penone, Alberi libro (Book Trees), 2017 and Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow), 2000, installation view, Serpentine South. ©Photo: George Darrell. Courtesy Giuseppe Penone and Serpentine.
Inside the Gallery: Breath, Memory, and Materiality
The exhibition traces Penone’s career from the 1960s to the present day, encompassing early works and new commissions. One of the sensory highlights is Respirare l’ombra (To Breathe the Shadow), an immersive installation made from laurel leaves that cover the gallery walls. Its scent, colour, and tactility gradually fade over time—reminding us of nature’s ephemerality and the temporal nature of perception itself.
Other deeply personal works include Soffio di foglie (Breath of Leaves), in which Penone lies atop a pile of boxwood leaves, imprinting it with the trace of his breath and body. Breath becomes a sculptural gesture—a metaphor for life and the transient mark we leave on the world.
The show opens with A occhi chiusi (With Eyes Closed), a powerful meditation on sight, touch, and interior vision. This early exploration began with Rovesciare i propri occhi (Reversing One’s Eyes, 1970), where Penone donned mirrored contact lenses, blinding himself to the world while forcing the viewer to question perception itself.
Giuseppe Penone, Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone), 2010 - 2024. Bronze and river stones. ©Photo: George Darrell. Courtesy Giuseppe Penone and Serpentine.
A Poetic Return to Roots
At the heart of Penone’s practice is the tree—what he describes as “the primal and most simple idea of vitality, of culture, of sculpture.” His Alberi (Trees) series, begun in 1969, involves delicately removing layers from felled timber to reveal the tree’s hidden past. In Alberi libro (Book Trees), twelve saplings are placed side by side, each one carved like pages in a living archive of seasons, growth, and memory.
Meanwhile, Gesti vegetali (Vegetal Gestures) places bronze forms in terracotta pots outside the gallery windows, mimicking the motion of plants as they grow and turn toward the sun. Cast in oxidised bronze—its patina echoing tree bark—these gestures fuse human movement with botanical expression.
Giuseppe Penone working on Pressione (Pressure) at Musée de Grenoble, 2014 Photo © Musée de Grenoble / ph. Jean-Luc Lacroix
Expanding the Dialogue Between Art and Ecology
Curated by Claude Adjil, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Alexa Chow, Thoughts in the Roots reaffirms Serpentine’s ongoing commitment to bringing art into dialogue with the landscape. Penone’s sculptures respond not only to the changing seasons of Kensington Gardens but also to our shifting understanding of the environment and the materials that shape it.
As Bettina Korek and Hans Ulrich Obrist note, “Revealing the fragile and poetic relationships between humans and nature, the exhibition will exemplify Penone’s experimental research… and nurture Serpentine’s mission of building new connections between artists and audiences.”
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication designed by Atelier Dyakova, featuring drawings, texts by Penone, and contributions from Federico Campagna, Ludovico Einaudi, Precious Okoyomon, and Elif Shafak. An extended interview between Penone and Obrist provides further insight into the artist’s thinking, material choices, and enduring relationship with Serpentine.
