The house of Fendi pays homage to the Italian city with a scuplture by artist Giuseppe Penone – Rome's first public contemporary artwork since the 17th century

NEWS: On 22 May 2017,&nbsp;Fendi&nbsp;unveiled the&nbsp;new site specific artwork by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone &ndash; entitled Foglie di Pietra&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;in Largo Goldoni in Rome, opposite Palazzo Fendi.&nbsp;Following the solo exhibition of Giuseppe Penone, Matrice, hosted at the Maison&rsquo;s headquarters at Palazzo della Civilt&agrave; Italiana in Rome, Fendi&nbsp;renews and reinforces its deep bond with Rome by gifting an important artwork by one of today&#39;s most celebrated sculptors to the city.

After the majestic restoration of the Trevi Fountain and&nbsp;the opening of the first floor of its headquarters at Palazzo della Civilt&agrave; Italiana to the public, Fendi&nbsp;reaffirms&nbsp;its full commitment to the promotion of culture. This important initiative has been carefully examined at every stage and approved by a specially formed joint committee &ndash; comprising of&nbsp;the Directorate General for Contemporary Art and architecture and urban suburbs of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, the City of Rome &ndash; Superintendence of Cultural Heritage for Rome, together with Fendi&nbsp;and Massimiliano Gioni, curator of the exhibition

Foglie di Pietra by Giuseppe Penone

Unveiling of the Foglie di Pietra

Parisi Presicce, Ilaria Borletti Buitoni, Luca Bergamo and Pietro Beccari

Pietro Beccari, Silvia Venturini Fendi and Giuseppe Penone

Toni Belloni, Elisabetta Beccari, Giuseppe Penone, Giovanna Belloni and Pietro Beccari

Franca Fendi and Federica Formilli Fendi

Toni Belloni, Parisi Presicce, Ilaria Borletti Buitoni, Federica Galloni, Luca Bergamo, Giuseppe Penone and Pietro Beccari

Giuseppe Penone, Dina Penone and Peter Benson Miller

Giovanni Penone, Silvia Venturini Fendi and Pietro Beccari

Allegra Beccari, Carolina Beccari, Elisabetta Beccari, Pietro Beccari and Costanza Beccari

Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Giuseppe Penone, Anna Fendi and Silvia Venturini Fendi

&ldquo;As Edgar Morin says, we humans are not 50% nature and 50% culture, yet 100% cultural and 100% natural human beings. There are no mistakes in this calculation, but the acknowledging that every natural event is also completely cultural in human societies, suffices it to think of the rites, rules, thoughts, conceptualizations that go along entirely biological facts such as birth, nutrition, death. Evoking this double dimension in Largo Goldoni and talking about the &quot;cultural tomorrow&quot; of the capital city, the art of Giuseppe Penone also creates a new dialogue between history, the contemporary and the future. It is a further sign of a city that works, in many of its components, to give everyone back the right to freely enjoy the art and the benefits of scientific progress. Conditions these indispensable to its relaunch,&rdquo; comments Luca Bergamo, Deputy Mayor of the City of Rome with delegation to cultural growth

&ldquo;The great sculpture &lsquo;Foglie di Pietra&rsquo;, permanent installation that will enrich Largo Goldoni through its expressive strength, constitutes a great gift to art and culture by one of the greatest contemporary Italian sculptors. A gift which Fendi has contributed to, continuing in fact, to manifest its love for the city of Rome, with this new act of patronage,&quot;&nbsp;says Claudio Parisi Presicce, Superintendent of Cultural Heritage for Rome.

&ldquo;We are extremely proud to donate this wonderful and incredible art piece by Giuseppe Penone to the city of Rome, its citizens and the million tourists who come visit the Eternal City every day. &lsquo;Foglie di pietra&rsquo; embodies once again how much tied we are to this city and the importance it carries in the history of FENDI. Penone is an Italian artist of international fame with whom we share the passion for creation, sublime savoir-faire and continuous dialogue between tradition and innovation, core values of FENDI,&rdquo; states Pietro Beccari, Chairman and CEO of Fendi.

The great sculpture Foglie di Pietra (Leaves of Stone, 2016) is one of the most complex artworks of Giuseppe Penone: two bronze trees &ndash; 18m and 9m&nbsp;respectively &ndash; interlace their branches, lifting-up at 5m from the ground a sculpted marble block weighing 11 tonnes. In Foglie di Pietra, archaeology and ruins, history and biology are grafted one on the other, creating a permanent bond between nature and culture, celebrating a deep synthesis between the flowing of natural and human time where a sense of longing and a romantic nostalgia for lost civilizations are brought to the surface.

Foglie di Pietra

Giuseppe Penone's solo exhibition, Matrice, at Fendi headquarters at the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana

Giuseppe Penone 

Pietro Beccari, Giuseppe Penone and Toni Belloni

Pietro Beccari and Elisabetta Beccari

Installed in the architectural context of the city of Rome, the artwork activates a series of interpretations and associations between the various moments of the millenary history of the capital city: through the virtuous use of precious materials, such as bronze and marble, Foglie di Pietra recalls the illusionism and marvel of Baroque Rome, whereas the fragments of ruins inserted in the branches of the sculpture are reminiscent of the Classic and Medieval era. Intimately linked to the history of Rome, Foglie di Pietra is also deeply ingrained in the present and future of the city. This piece is in fact the first work of contemporary art to be permanently installed in the public spaces of Rome and it is bound to become a symbol of the identity of a constantly changing city that still never loses the bond with its historical roots.

Fendi Unveils Foglie Di Pietra Artwork in Rome

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