Pelle di foglie - ramo

Between 1999 and 2007, Penone created the series of works called Pelle di foglie, assembling and casting branches and leaves in bronze.The title evokes the association and similarity between human skin and leaves. Skin is a central element in Penone’s reflections, as he considers it both as many ideas emerging from a base of experiences a boundary between oneself and the surrounding environment, and as a repository of identity, allowing for identification and being identified. His interest in skin also stems from the consideration of touch as a form of knowledge: more reliable than sight, it implies reciprocity and thus leads to knowledge that results from encounter rather than individual action.

As with the Gesti vegetali (Vegetal Gestures), the Pelle di foglie series consists of anthropomorphic works that highlight the continuity between nature and culture that underpins all of Penone’s work.