The origins of Giuseppe Penone’s œuvre lie in ‘the desire to establish a relationship of equals between himself and things’. From his very first works, he instigated a relationship with the organic world and with nature, in particular with trees: ‘In May 1969, I went into the forest and I set on down a path through time, slow, thoughtful and amazed.’ Since then, Penone has been creating sculptures, installations, and photographs. His work, for which he mainly employs earth, wood, leather, marble, and bronze, often takes place in places that allow him to express the work’s monumental character. For the Arles exhibition, a group of photographs, drawings, and sculptures will be presented in the Chapelle du Méjan. A monumental bronze tree, realised specifically for this exhibition, will be installed in the centre of the Saint-Trophine cloister. A catalogue, conceived by the artist and Pascale Le Thorel, will be published on the occasion of the exhibition. Between the Lines, the title of this event, evokes Penone’s work by referring to Pliny the Elder’s adage: ‘Nulla dies sine linea’ (‘Not a day without a line’). It also refers to the artist’s work on imprints (from the impression of his fingerprints on sheets of paper to their appearance in artworks where resin flows, from the revelation of circles of wood to the forms contained in this material): ‘The imprint is a thing that everyone leaves around them, and which we spend a part of our lives trying to erase. It is an animal image, a material image, but also a completely cultural image.’

Exhibition curator: Frédéric Paul.