On several occasions in recent years, Daniel Spoerri announced that the »Giardino« would cease accepting new works, but always qualified his decision with »Unless …«.

One such »unless« occurred when, in May 2015, he met with the sculptor Thomas Blumer, whom he had known as a young boy. Back then, he had taken him on an excursion to the Moulin Boyard, south of Paris – unusual company for the otherwise childless Daniel Spoerri. To be on the safe side, he impressed upon the young boy that he was allowed to wander around as he pleased, but he was to touch base every hour.

An oversized finger made from a stone called diabase in Thomas Blumer’s studio could have provided the impetus and may also have provoked a memory of the strict, raised forefinger with which Spoerri had impressed his instruction upon the young Thomas Blumer 30 years previously. At any rate, Spoerri invited the sculptor to install the »Finger« in the Giardino. The sculpture is also an art historical quotation, a play on the sculptural enlargement of a thumb (»La Pouce«; 1965) by César, which was produced in 1971 in a run of 25 examples (each 40 cm tall) made from a sweet gummy mixture for Daniel Spoerri’s Eat Art Galerie in Düsseldorf.