the work of italian artist giuseppe penone is primarily concerned with the relationship between man and nature. never is this more apparent than in his work ‘essere fiume’ (to be river).

the work consists of two large identical-looking stones. the difference between the two is only revealed in their origins. one is a stone that has been taken from a river, it has been eroded and carved by the flow of water, the other however has been carved by the hand of penone. both stones may look identical but their creations are vastly different.

penone was sure to take the hand-carved stone from the same river as the river-carved stone. both stones therefore originated from the same source. a process however that took thousands of years for the river to achieve, took only a matter of weeks for the hand of man.

a consideration of the differences between authenticity and artifice is also present in ‘essere fiume’, with two identical seeming, though different, objects placed side by side. penone examines the art of sculpture, drawing an analogy between the work of the artists and that of nature. as penone himself states:

“producing a stone made of stone is perfect sculpture”

‘essere fiume’ is powerful because it asks question that strike at the very core of the institution of art, that question its fundamental status. a work of such brilliance however, is proof enough of the necessity of art.