After the great personal exhibition organized in 2008 by Richard Peduzzi, Giuseppe Penone returns today to Villa Medici with a project conceived specifically for the historic rooms of Cardinal Ferdinando de 'Medici. From December 16, 2021 to February 27, 2022; the artist presents four emblematic works of his own poetics: Vase (1986) in ceramic and plaster, The emptiness of the vase (2005) in white terracotta and radiographs, and Enveloping the earth - vase (2005) in white terracotta and plaster, the video Ephemeris (2016) and five terracotta and bronze sculptures entitled Terra su terra - basin (2005). 

While the 2008 exhibition was presented in the most emblematic and majestic spaces of Villa Medici, this time the artist occupies a place with a more intimate character: the private rooms of Cardinal Ferdinando de 'Medici (the room of the Elements, the room of the Muses , the room of the loves of Jupiter). For this project, Giuseppe Penone tries to highlight the singularity of the spaces by presenting three works that question the material and the concept of sculpture. An example is the work Vaso, composed of a ceramic bowl that houses a plaster vase whose unstructured silhouette bears the imprint of the artist's hands, echoing the private, almost domestic functions of the place that hosts it. The artist's imprint is also found in the work The vacuum of the vase, a composition formed by a vase framed by three radiographs of hands, which plays on the materiality of the forms and their visual perception. Finally, the encounter between gesture and matter is found in the third work, Wrapping the earth - vase (2005), made of terracotta, the synthesis of a universal form that underlines the complex link between man and nature. Terracotta is the material of which the vase in the center of the Ephemeris video is also composed, belonging to the homonymous cycle of 2016, as well as the basins supported by bronze bases also inspired by plant elements in the Terra su terra series - basin (2005).