Comme un jeu d’enfant

The works created by Daniel Buren are deployed respectively over the 1500 sqm of the MAMCS’ glazed facade and in the 600 sqm of the temporary exhibition space. The project is in two parts closely complementing each other and in both cases providing visitors with a chance to rediscover the museum’s architecture and temporary exhibition spaces in a new light.

On the glass canopy and the large windows lining the “nave” of the MAMCS, Buren continues the in situ approach he has been using since 1968. The museum’s architecture (designed by them Fainsilber studio) is is seen and understood for what it is, Buren’s proposal consisting in enlarging this extensive area. This he achieves through his work on light and chromatic values, modified by the use of tinted film affixed directly to the glass canopy. Thus added to the 25 metre high “nave”, these “stained glass windows” create a striking effect, radically altering our vision of the museum’s iconic facade as seen from the outside, as well as our perception of the interior space.

In the exhibition space, completely emptied for the occasion, an architectural landscape has been built on a regular plan of three squares, with a hundred painted wooden components for the visitor to wander among. The geometrically shaped modules (cuboids, cylinders, cubes, pyramids or arches) are arranged symmetrically in the room, rather like a giant construction game. The components installed in the first half of the room are left in white, while the following ones play a colour game. The alternating, 8.7 cm wide stripes, emblematic of the artist’s work, are discreet yet visible on the inside of the arch-shaped modules. The room is divided lengthwise by a walkway, marked out by structures over 6 metres high; hollowed out in their centre by an “oculus”, the modules give the effect of a giant telescope.

With this double exhibition, Daniel Buren has created site-specific installations that combine understanding of an existing structure with an affirmative architectural, even sculptural, proposal. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a selection of works that, from 1971 to the present, have been closely involved with architecture. It includes a text by Marie-Ange Brayer and a recent exchange between Daniel Buren, Patrick Bouchain, Joëlle Pijaudier Cabot and Estelle Pietrzyk.

until January 4, 2015
Daniel Buren
Comme un jeu d’enfant
curated by Joëlle Pijaudier Cabot and Estelle Pietrzyk
Strasbourg Modern and Contemporary Art Museum
1 place Hans Jean Arp, Strasbourg