(Epheměris - Foglia-impronta; Epheměris - Coccio;  Epheměris - Verde del bosco; Epheměris - Palpebra; Epheměris - Impronta; Epheměris - Vaso; Epheměris - Malevič |Videos: courtesy Archivio Giuseppe Penone)

«Since the late 1960s, Giuseppe Penone’s practice has focused on the dialectic between human beings and nature. It is a visceral relationship, passing through close contact with the raw materials of his art-making: trees, plants, leaves, earth, water. These are the elements with which Penone interacts. In the videos of Ephemĕris we see the artist engaging in minimal gestures, where physical action upon matter "frees the soul of things," focusing attention not on the finished work, but rather on the artistic process. Ephemĕris goes to the essence of Penone’s poetics, of that vocabulary of actions and behaviors from which his works are born: the contact between hand and matter, the profound relationship with plant elements, the imprint and the skin, the transition from liquid to solid, the reciprocal influence between man and natural elements. The actions speak of the extraordinary importance that the direct experience of places, materials, and making holds for the artist. The videos in the series can be read almost as "confessions" through which Penone brings us to the root of his own creation — a suggestion fueled by the sacredness and sense of inwardness inspired by the baptistery. The choice of works and the exhibition layout stem precisely from a dialogue with the architecture of the location, bearing witness to the attention the artist pays to the contexts in which he exhibits.» (S. Verini)

Ephemĕris is also an extension of Anafora, the exhibition by Giuseppe Penone produced by the Festival dei Due Mondi with the collaboration of the Civic Museums of Spoleto. The Carla Fendi Foundation, long-standing main partner of the Festival, with its own contribution also wished to support this project, curated by Saverio Verini within the spaces of the Palazzo Collicola (open to the public until January 10 2027).

The works of Anafora offer a highly representative selection of Penone’s poetics and have provided a fresh reading of the Piano Nobile of Palazzo Collicola, engaging with the spaces and emphasizing their architectural qualities. Starting from the Hall of Honor, the exhibition route welcomes visitors with Albero di 11 metri (11-Meter Tree), a work belonging to the series of "debarked trees" that the artist—starting from a huge beam subsequently divided into two parts—manually carved out in the manner of a woodworm, to reveal the "buried" trunk within.

The work serves as the ideal introduction to a sculpture garden set up in the Gallery, a long space with walls decorated with plant elements. Opposite each of the windows opening onto the surrounding landscape, seven works establish a relationship between the interior and exterior of the space, creating a rhythm and cadence suggested by the title of the entire exhibition project, Anafora. The tree is always the main subject, but rendered in bronze with its time-wrought oxidations, it becomes an emblem of transience and the potential for transformation.

(Anafora- Albero di 11 metri; Anafora - Struttura del tempo; Anafora - Dafne; Anafora - Zona d’ombra; Anafora- Indistinti confini Rhenus; Anafora - Trattenere 8 anni di crescita; Anafora - Negazione; Anafora - Albero e Gesto) 

To complete the tribute paid to Penone through his various expressive mediums, the Festival dei Due Mondi installed the monumental sculpture Le foglie delle radici (Leaves of the roots) in Piazza Pianciani, in the heart of the historic center. For the entire duration of the festival, the artwork stood as an en plein air testimony to the artist's unmistakable poetics and served as the image used for this edition's poster.

Le foglie delle radici