Italian first for Tate Modern

Arte Povera explored unusual sculptural materials

London's Tate Modern is preparing for the first British exhibition by a major Italian art movement - by shipping in cacti, coal and coffee beans.

The movement Arte Povera propelled Italy to the center of the modern art world in the 1960s by its radical social and political attitudes.

The group also rejected the historical primacy of painting in favour of sculpture.

Arte Povera redefined sculpture to include everyday materials, live energy sources - and even live animals.

The Tate exhibition Zero to Infinity showcases the work of fourteen Arte Povera artists and includes famous works as well as items from private collections.

Live parrot

Tate technicians are installing works such as Untitled 1967 by Jannis Kounellis, which placed cacti in an iron flowerbed and surrounded a pile of cotton wool with another iron structure.

Nearby there is a perch on the wall where a live parrot sometimes sits.

Tate Modern is staging an Italian first

Kounellis also created one of Arte Povera's most famous works, Untitled (12 Horses) in 1969, for which he tethered a dozen live horses in a Rome gallery, manifesting a desire to make art that could not be sold.

The exhibition will also feature a series of 10ft high marble feet by Luciano Fabro and Mario Merz's work Giap's Igloo, an igloo made from dried mud.

Other artists featured include Alighiero Boetti who in 1966 created Yearly Lamp, a light bulb in a wooden box which randomly switches itself on for 11 seconds each year.

Over time Arte Povera became a major contributor to the conceptual art movement.

The Tate Modern exhibition runs from 31 May to 19 August.