At first glance a tree, on closer inspection the bronze cast of a hazelnut tree. It carries a large granite stone in its topped branches: Two years before documenta opened, the first exhibition object was placed at noon on the summer solstice, 21 June 2010, the longest day of the year.
The Arte Povera artist, whose central motif is the tree, links the bronze-stone combination to a complex theory on the relationship between painting and sculpture in relation to the surrounding forces of nature. Painting is - according to Penone - a process of covering, while sculpture is out to bring to light. Flowing paint, like liquid bronze, is subject to gravity, while sculpture expresses the opposite force. And the plant world, the growing tree, also escapes the earth's gravity with the help of light, despite the weight of the stone. Cast in bronze, a moment of natural history is permanently captured here.
The work of art was secured for Kassel through civic engagement.
