For the latest Bloomberg Commission at the Whitechapel Gallery, Italian artist Giuseppe Penone continues his career-long reflection on the passing of time and the contact between man and nature. Spazio di Luce (Space of Light) is a bronze cast of the thick layer of wax surrounding a 12 metre-tall larch, with a radiant gold-leaf interior. The work spreads dramatically across the columned gallery and will be on display from September 2012 until August 2013.

Born in 1947 in Garessio, Italy, Giuseppe Penone studied at the Accademia di Belle Arte before leaving formal education to pursue his artistic practice in the woods surrounding his home. Aged 22, he was the youngest member to be admitted to the legendary group Arte Povera, which called for a radical rethink of society through making works directly appealing to the senses and challenging common conventions of art making.

Penone has exhibited widely in Europe and America and his work is held in important international collections including Tate Modern, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. His large-scale sculpture Idee di Pietra inaugurated dOCUMENTA 13 in 2010 and he was recently selected as 2013 artist for Versailles. He currently lives and works in Turin, Italy.

This publication has been created in close collaboration with the artist and gives a unique insight into the universe of ideas that underpins his works. It brings together previously unpublished drawings, photographs of historic actions and recent sculptures, and a selection of the artist’s own writings. The publication also includes an interview between Achim Borchardt-Hume and the artist, an essay by art critic and scholar Douglas Fogle focusing on Penone’s work with trees alongside full page colour installation images of the exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Paperback, 208 pages, 172 x 235 mm 

ISBN: 978–0–85488–210–6

First published 2012.