Giuseppe Penone was born in 1947 in Garessio in northern Italy. He received his artistic breakthrough in the late 1960s as a key figure of the Arte Povera movement and has since had an influential career internationally. Already in 1970, Pontus Hultén, then director of Moderna Museet, acquired Penone’s tree sculpture Albero di 12 metri for the museum’s collection. This iconic work has since been included in several exhibitions at Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Malmö.

Through his sculptures, as well as works in other media, Penone has explored concepts such as time, humanity and nature, and his works highlight the interconnectedness of the world. He is often described as a master of materials, a sculptor with the ability to reveal what is invisible and make the impossible possible.

The artistic council’s motivation for the 2024 selection reads:
“Over the past five decades, Giuseppe Penone has explored the relationship between humans and nature in his groundbreaking artistic practice. A recurring motif is the living, growing tree as it relates to the human body. In his sculptures, Penone uses natural elements to emphasize the materials’ unique characteristics through simple gestures that draw our attention to the complex processes that surround us.”

The acquisition of Giuseppe Penone’s sculpture has been made possible through a generous donation by Birgitta and Conni Jonsson.

The Princess Estelle Sculpture Park continues to grow with the site-specific unique work The Inner Flow of Life by Giuseppe Penone, the fifth permanent sculpture in its collection. The Inner Flow of Life will be installed between Israel af Ströms väg and Rosendalsvägen on Royal Djurgården in Stockholm and inaugurated by H.R.H. Prince Daniel on 30 May 2024 at 1 PM. Map available here.