The Urn of Daniel Spoerri now rests in his art garden “HIC Terminus Haeret”, built by the Swiss artist himself at the heart of the Tuscan Marem. Visit the site with the president of the Foundation, Susanne Neumann.
This content was published on 01 May 2025 – 11:30
On the slopes of Monte Amiata, in the midst of the olive trees and woods of the Tuscan Marem, there is a place where art and nature meet in a silent and deep dialogue: it is the garden of Daniel Spoerri, a park of sculptures which today houses the works of the Swiss artist who died last November and which, from April 21, also welcomes his last place, remains.
The name of “garden” is undoubtedly limiting. It is an extent of greenery located between Seggiano and Pescina, in the province of Grosseto, which extends over 16 hectares. The garden houses 115 works by nearly 60 artists. Half of the facilities are signed by Spoerri, the others by friends of the Swiss artist, including Arman and Jean Tinguely.
An artist who crossed the 19the century
Daniel Spoerri, born Daniel Isaac Feinstein in 1930 in Galați, in Romania, is one of the most eclectic and most influential artists of the 20th century. After an intense life and a multifaceted career that saw him pass from dance to poetry and visual arts, he found in Tuscany the synthesis of his many lives.
The garden, open to the public since the 1990s, “is the largest work of art in his life,” explains Susanne Neumann, president of the “HIC Terminus Haeret FoundationExternal link», Responsible for perpetuating the memory of the Swiss artist and continuing the work of artistic dissemination of the Garden of Spoerri, a place where art merges with the landscape, and where each work tells a different story.
The story of Spoerri is marked from the start by tragic events and constant trips. Born of a Jewish father converted to Protestantism and a Swiss mother, Daniel lost his father during the pogrom from 1941 to Iași. After this tragedy, his mother fled with children in Switzerland, where Daniel, then 12, is raised by an uncle.
It is in Switzerland that Spoerri begins his artistic training. He studies dance and becomes a dancer, then addresses poetry and the visual arts, coming into contact with the most experimental movements of the time, new realism with fluxusExternal link. “Chance, in his work as in his life, plays a very important role,” notes Neumann. And it is precisely by chance that, years later, Spoerri will find himself in the Maremme.
The discovery of the marem and the birth of the garden
“As often in life, this garden was not wanted. But he arrived by chance, ”says Susanne Neumann. It was in the early 1990s: Spoerri, then a professor at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, decided to leave his pulpit and settle in Tuscany. At the start, he does not think of a sculpture park. “He wanted to live here, to work here, he had a beautiful-workshop and started to arrange his sculptures to see them immersed in nature,” explains the president of the foundation. From there was born the idea of a real art garden, where other artists would also be invited to exhibit their works.
-Spoerri devoted himself to the project of all his heart: “When he undertook a task, and this garden was a great task, he devoted himself to it with all his heart,” said Susanne Neumann. When he was in Vienna, where he lived until his last years, he said: “When I am here, I never think of the garden”. And when he was here, in the Marem, he said: “I never think of Vienna”. Wherever he is, he was completely present ”.
Susanne Neumann, who has been Daniel Spoerri’s right -hand man for years and who continues her work today, says with emotion: “I remember my arrival here 25 years ago: the feeling of having arrived in a little Switzerland was even stronger. The precision, the punctuality, the rigor with which she worked, for the Bavaroise that I am, seemed very, very Swiss. ”
Artistic heritage
Spoerri was an innovator. With its Trap paintingshe captured moments of daily life and transformed them into art. He knew how to mix genres and languages, always leaving room at random and unexpected. The garden, which carries the Latin motto This term sticksis the embodiment of his artistic thought: “It was a good idea to call him like this,” explains Susanne Neumann, “because he said that this land is also a passing area”. This term sticks means “here the border is posed”, but not the border as a final point, but as a passage from one moment to another “.
For people who visit the garden, the experience is immersive: “Visitors who come to leave the world they know and enter this world park, sometimes even surreal,” said Susanne Neumann. It is an artistic, philosophical and spiritual journey.
Rest at the heart of his work
On April 21, on the occasion of the seasonal reopening of the garden, a commemoration open to the public was organized. As every year, in 2025, the season was opened on Easter Monday. But this year is special: it is the first without Daniel Spoerri.
The opening ceremony of the garden was therefore an opportunity to say goodbye to the master, who wanted to come back here for good. His urn was indeed placed in the chapel of the skulls, one of his most evocative works. She will stay there for some time, to allow everyone to pay a last tribute to the great artist.
But then, it will be placed in another work of art produced by the same Swiss artist, but much less visible, because located on a small hill and hidden by trees. Not a traditional grave, but a work of art: because eternity, for Daniel Spoerri, is also a creative act.
Text translated from Italian using Deeppl/op
