< img src=" https://www.designboom.com/twitterimages/uploads/2026/03/paola-pivi-living-cosmos-lemon-trees-perrotin-paris-exhibition-designboom-1200.jpg "alt= ""> A universe grown from lemon trees inhabits perrotin
paris What if regrowth wasn’t metaphorical but literal? In Live Again, Paola Pivi builds a world where life cycles are embedded into the artwork itself, using living matter as both medium and message. Presented at Perrotin Paris and running until April 18th, 2026, the exhibit centers on New Life, a series of sculptural constellations formed from thoroughly cut lemon tree branches created to regrow. Along with a bronze structure, fifty star-like structures change natural pieces into a speculative universes, where damage becomes a precondition for renewal.
The trees are not merely referenced but materially transformed to continue living beyond the exhibit, suggesting that art can progress and regrow instead of simply exist as an item. In this sense, Live Again moves from representation to process, recommending a future where creative production aligns with ecological connection.
view of the exhibit ‘Live again’at Perrotin Paris(France), 2026|image by Claire Dorn, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin paola pivi uses Wonder as a critical tool A series of environments that oscillate in between playfulness and conflict forms the exhibition at Perrotin Paris. Hand-painted phrases such as INTERNATIONAL LAW, FREE, and HUMANS appear in vibrant colors, initially deactivating before exposing their political charge. As the museum director of the Museums Commission, Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture, Valentino Catricalà notes, the Italian artist’s work runs like a ‘punch to the gut,’ utilizing familiar, even cheerful, types to provide direct reflections on modern truths, including postcolonial structures and systems of power.
This tension continues with works like ‘God let me hunt’, where language broadens into both spiritual invocation and metaphor for desire, ambition, and survival. Silk embroideries and a reinterpreted inflatable ladder extend this dialogue, placing movement, goal, and scale as tools for reconsidering cumulative futures.
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“https://static.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/paola-pivi-living-cosmos-lemon-trees-perrotin-paris-exhibition-designboom-06.jpg”/ > a world where life process are embedded into the artwork|image by Claire Dorn, thanks to the artist and Perrotin Liquifying limits between genuine and synthetic In the central rooms, the exhibit reaches its most immersive state. The aroma of lemon trees fills the space, while living plants coexist with bronze reproductions so carefully crafted they appear to breathe. The distinction in between natural and artificial collapses, enhancing Pivi’s enduring interest in destabilizing perceptions. These hybrid types stem from an idea dating back to 1999, now recognized as trees that resemble stars, or entire universes. Nature becomes structure, and structure becomes universes. It’s less about representation and more about recalibrating how we view scale, material, and life itself.
The last spaces shift toward a more explicit review. Deflated balloons suspended by iron rings evoke both victims of violence and a collective condition of inertia, initially linked to reflections on mafia-related trauma in Italy. Here, Pivi’s language ends up being plain, stripping away illusion while preserving her signature visual lightness. Alongside this, her long-running pearl works introduce another dimension: build-up as meditation. Countless synthetic pearls form tactile surfaces that echo natural processes of defense and change. As the artist shows, this act connects to ‘the spiritual side of imagination,’ where repetition and persistence generate meaning.
the exhibit centers on New Life(2026 )| image by Claire Dorn, thanks to the artist and Perrotin Paola Pivi, Live again, 2026 Bronze, paint|image by Tanguy Beurdeley, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
Paola Pivi, I more than happy with the ladder, 2019 3D frased foam, painted, plinth 42 × 12 × 6 cm |
16 9/16 × 4 3/4 × 2 3/8 inches Base: 50 × 15 × 15 cm|19 11/16 × 5 7/8 × 5 7/8 inches|image by Guillaume.Ziccarelli, thanks to the artist and Perrotin
Paola PIVI Human Rights, 2026 Silk 36 × 55 × 4 cm|image by Claire Dorn, thanks to the artist and Perrotin Paola Pivi Free Brainwash, 2026 Silk 40 × 120 × 4 cm|image by Claire Dorn, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin< img src=" image/gif; base64, R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/// yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7"alt="paola
pivi imagines a living cosmos grown from lemon trees at perrotin paris exhibition – 8″ width=”818″ height=”620″ data-src=”https://static.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/paola-pivi-living-cosmos-lemon-trees-perrotin-paris-exhibition-designboom-10.jpg”/ > Paola Pivi, Senza titolo (contro la mafia per l’attentato di Via Palestro) (II), 2026 Balloons installed on paper with grommets 51 × 72 cm|image by Claire Dorn, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
< img src="image/gif; base64, R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP/// yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" alt="paola pivi envisions a living universes grown from lemon trees at perrotin paris exhibition - 9" width="818" height="583" data-src="https://static.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/paola-pivi-living-cosmos-lemon-trees-perrotin-paris-exhibition-designboom-08.jpg"/ > Pivi’s language ends up being plain|image by Claire Dorn, thanks to the artist and Perrotin