Giuseppe Penone: The Listener
Arsenale, 17th Architecture Biennale, Venice 2021

Giuseppe Penone’s The Listener—part of his Idee di Pietra - Olmo series—is a nine meter tall bronze cast of an elm tree with a boulder held aloft, cradled in its branches. D.H.office worked closely with the artist and the Vuslat Foundation to include the sculpture as part of the 17th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale.

D.H.office oversaw all aspects of the project, including budget and project management, permitting from the City of Venice, technical development and installation of the sculpture—including design of the underwater plinth and fastening mechanism—as well the production of a film and other communications materials documenting the project. 

The sculpture’s placement in the Venetian lagoon, directly in front of the Arsenale’s old shipyard, marked the first time one of Penone’s trees was installed in water. This required installing an underwater foundation and coordinating a dive team and several crane barges to safely and securely affix the three-ton bronze below the surface.