KASSEK.- On June 21st, 2010, Giuseppe Penone's Idee di Pietra (Ideas of Stone) was inaugurated in the Karlsaue park in Kassel as the first artwork on the way to dOCUMENTA (13).

At first sight a small cloud seems to be caught in the branches of a tree, which is almost 9 meters high. At a closer look, the tree reveals itself to be a bronze sculpture with a large stone set into its upper section. Near the bronze tree, a small live sapling is growing. Poised between reality, representation and fiction, and situated in the landscaped garden of the Karlsaue park, close to the Orangerie in Kassel, it celebrates the poetic experience and relationship of nature and culture through art.

Two years before the official opening, dOCUMENTA (13) begins its activities by planting a tree in the park. Like a tree, the dOCUMENTA (13) will grow organically over the next two years.

“This event takes place on the summer solstice,” says Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, “the day the sun is highest in the sky in the year. We celebrate the beginning of summer and the creativity of art with this moment in the park - by planting a tree.”

Giuseppe Penone participated in documenta 5 as well as documenta 7 and 8. His „Idee die Pietra“ (Ideas of a Stone) was a pivotal contribution to Carolyn Christov-Barkagiev‘s Sydney Biennial in 2008. Now it is both a contribution to the remarkable history of outdoor-sculptures that were realized on behalf of former documenta-exhibitions as well as a good omen for dOCUMENTA (13).