Zwei Quadratmeter Grund

The German word »Grund« doesn’t just mean ground, soil or space – it also translates to reason, origin and motivation. »Grund« is where everything starts – even the making of bread. This is why we decided to show exactly that. The installation »Zwei Quadratmeter Grund« for the bakery Öfferl featured two square meters of live wheat field, planted in prominent places around the city of Vienna.

Why two square meters?

Öfferl believes that the production of authentic, natural goods begins in the soil, and most of all in the way we treat it. The Installation »Zwei Quadratmeter Grund« reconnected people in the city with the origins of a staple: bread.

The installation was on display at highly frequented places throughout Vienna, making it easy to feel, touch and smell the wheat that is the origin and the reason for why bread even exists. An additional sign with a QR code led visitors to a microsite that gave detailed information about how much of each variety of wheat goes into each loaf of Öfferl bread.

The steps taken to realize this installation – from digging out the bits and pieces of a wheat field in lower Austria to setting it up in steel vessels in the city – were filmed and made into a series of three videos that accompanied the installation on social media.