Progetto Pozzo di Münster

A broken branch appears to have been left lying on the manicured park lawn at the old Hörster Friedhof. This branch is actually Italian Arte Povera artist Giuseppe Penone’s Fountain Project for Münster. The seven-meter-long bronze casting rests on a stone. A cast of the artist’s hand sticks out of one end, with well water flowing out of the forearm and into a circular grating surrounded by paving stones. A pump directs the water back through the branch, creating a closed circuit.

Nature – along with the natural processes of growth and decay – is a central theme in Giuseppe Penone’s work. In 1968 he had already created an early work featuring his own hand in nature. The sculpture It Will Continue to Grow Except at That Point is a bronze casting of his hand in a grabbing position, which was attached to the trunk of a (real) young tree. This forced nature to change its course and grow around it.

Further reading:
Skulptur-Projekte 1987 in Münster, ed. by Klaus Bußmann and Kasper König, Cologne 1987, pp. 217–220.