THE PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS a Black man in rags and fetters being led through the street by a white man robed in white, trailed by a flock of spectators. The year was 1968, the setting an arts festival in Amalfi called Arte povera più azioni povere (Poor Art Plus Poor Actions); the scene was part of a play, L'uomo ammaestrato (The Trained Man), created by the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and his theater collective, Lo Zoo.
'Arte Povera' is a term that was coined by Germano Celant in the late 1960s and used to describe the radical and anti-establishment art movement, humble in its materials, that was prominent for the following decade and for which Penone was an important figure. An emphasis was placed on the social and cultural shifts at the time, though Italy had, in this respect, never really found stability.