It is not the devil who turns stones into bread in Venice

In the Bible, Satan tempts Jesus, after a forty-day fast, to turn stones into bread out of hunger. The Savior renounces the devil. But somehow rocks and rubble also contain food, the Weyr sculptor Alois Lindenbauer firmly believes. Because even supposedly barren rocks are the material basis for life, he cut up boulders from the Enns River, surrounded them with a golden rim and arranged them for a round table.

The installations of the Ennstal artist, who has spent his life studying the transformations and processes in nature, are exhibited around the world, not always noticed by the Austrian art scene. Now Lindenbauer is even represented with his stone slab at the Venice Biennale, the largest and oldest art exhibition in the world. Lindenbauer cannot hide his enthusiasm at being able to show his 14-part installation “Nutrition Nature” in the historic Palazzo Mora: “This is certainly a high point of my artistic activity.”

The Upper Austrian was invited to the Biennale by “The European Cultural Centre”, founded in 2002 by the Dutch artist Rene Rietmeyer, which not only exhibits its own artists in Venice, but has also curated and organized national pavilions such as those of Kuwait, the Seychelles, Mongolia, Mozambique, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Many inquiries to the artist

Lindenbauer’s ticket to the European Cultural Centre has already attracted a lot of attention from the streams of visitors who have been flocking to the exhibitions since April 20. The confrontation with supposedly dead matter, which in another form is also a source of life and thus nourishment, has evidently struck a chord with people in times of climate change and global environmental threats. “I am overwhelmed by the number of inquiries and contacts here,” reports Lindenbauer from Venice. The cut stones, which are served on the round tray, will be part of the Biennale until November 24, when it closes its doors again.

International Exchange

The Weyrer finds the international exchange between fellow artists on the big stage that the Biennale offers very enriching. More than 200 artists from all over the world are taking part in the exhibition of the European Cultural Centre in the Marinaressa Gardens in the Palazzo Mora, where Lindenbauer’s work is also on display.

Alois Lindenbauer, for the artist who created the altar and baptismal site of the church in his home town of Weyer, the Biennale is a feeling of happiness

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