Daniel Buren's site specific commission opens in Paris' Grand Palais
Date uploaded: May 14, 2012
Daniel Buren's site-specific installation opens in Paris' Grand Palais
The 2012 annual Monumenta temporary site-specific commission, this year by Daniel Buren and entitled 'Excentrique(s)', opened in Paris's Grand Palais on 10th May and will be on display until 21st June 2012.
Daniel Buren is the fifth artist to take on the annual Monumenta project, housed in the nave of the Grand Palais which was originally built for the 1900 World Fair. Previous commissions were by Anselm Kiefer, Richard Serra, Christian Boltanski and Anish Kapoor.
The space is 13,500 metres square and has a 45 metre glass vault. Buren’s piece comprises a canopy of hundreds of horizontal circles, each touching the next but varying in size and height – which fill the space. These coloured panels – a membrane of translucent plastic film in blue, yellow, orange or green - are supported by black and white vertical steel poles.
At the centre of it all, under the central dome, are mirrored glass circles. Visitors are able to walk over these to view the roof, which Buren has interspersed with blue panels. Buren explains: 'When the sun comes out, everyone is upside down. In the beginning, I was impressed by the building, and didn't know how to compete with its extravagance. But it's rather alienating. So I set about providing a human scale by creating a kind of shelter.'
Click here for more information and to read the article by Adrian Searle's on the Guardian website
