Speisung der Fünftausend [The Feeding of the Five Thousand], 1999

The project The Feeding of the Five Thousand was created in conjunction with the XI International Lake Constance Festival. Some 5,000 fish and loaves of bread were distributed among the residents of, and visitors to, the towns of Konstanz, Radolfzell, Langenargen, Lindau, Meersburg, Friedrichshafen, Ravensburg, Kressbronn, Überlingen, Bodmann-Ludwigshafen, and Hard in 1999. The title refers to the miracle performed by Christ as recorded in the New Testament by all four Evangelists: "And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men, [...]." (Matthew 14.21)

This project enabled me to build up a relationship to an area as distinctly Christian as the Lake Constance region. There are stories that we simply know or that seem to follow us. What particularly interested me was to enact the story to see whether there is anything to it or not. In addition to this intellectual aspect, there is a further incentive: the desire to simply re-enact part of the storyline! Sculpture becomes a form of storyline insofar as one re-narrates a story via the creation of the sculpture and, in doing so, one also takes a particular stand. The story has reached us as it is — but has developed another form in the 20th century. The Feeding of the Five Thousand is a project that demonstrates that stories can also continue to develop, can shape our time. [1]

[1] Christoph Maisenbacher and Ottmar Hörl , An Adress to Humanity, 2010, p. 171

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Speisung der Fünftausend / The Feeding of the Five Thousand, 1999 Art project for the XI International Lake Constance Festival with 5,000 fish and loaves of bread made of plastic. Photo: Paul Silberberg