Daniel Isaac Feinstein, son of a missionary of the Norwegian-Lutheranian Church, fled with his mother and his siblings to Zurich in 1942, where the family adopted the mother's maiden name. There he got to know Max Terpis, Jean Tinguely and Eva Aeppli. Spoerri found his way to art by dancing. In 1949 he started training at the theatre dance school in Zurich, in 1952 a scholarship led him to Paris and in 1954 he became principal dancer at the Stadttheater in Bern. At that time he got acquainted with the artists Dieter Roth, Bernhard Luginbühl, Claus Bremer, Andre Thomkins and Meret Oppenheim. Since 1956 the artist turned slowly away from dancing. Spoerri returned to Paris and met at al. up with Pol Bury, Jesus-Rafael Soto, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. The artist achieved his deciding breakthrough in 1960 with his ‚Fallenbilder' as a member of the ‚Nouveaux Réalistes' in Paris, whose manifesto he also signed. Like many artists of his generation, Spoerri pleaded in conformity of art and life and showed in happenings like e.g. the banquets his close contact to the ‚Fluxus'-movement. He worked as a poet, stage designer, director, publisher, object artist, eat-artist, film producer and academy professor. In 1977 Spoerri was appointed professor at the Fachhochschule für Kunst und Design in Cologne and he taught at the academy of art in Munich from 1983 to 1989. Afterwards he resumed his own productivity. In 1990/91 Spoerri began to work at the sculpture garden ‚Hic terminus haeret - Il Giardino die Daniel Spoerri' in Seggiano in Italy, which was accepted as a foundation and officialy opened by the Italian ministry of culture in 1997. In 2005 he became citizen of honour in Seggiano. Spoerri's extremely various œuvre corresponds to his concept of art as communication and helped him to become an internationally important artist.