PRESENTATION: Daniel Buren-Going for a Walk in a Zigzag
Since the 1960s Daniel Buren’s critical analysis of painting , attempting to refine the act to an elemental form , led him to find what is now a trademark “visual tool”, the use of 8.7cm wide white and coloured vertical stripes. Once chosen for its anonymity and neutral presence, the stripe has become a signature for Buren’s work.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: ΕΜΜΑ Archive
Daniel Buren has been a leading name in conceptual art since the 1960s, as a founding member of the BMPT group, and remains thus to this day. He is best known for using symmetrical, contrasting maxi stripes that integrate visual surfaces and architectural spaces, notably in historical landmarks. Buren began producing unsolicited public artworks using striped awning canvases which are common in France –he started by setting up hundreds of striped posters around Paris and later, in over 100 underground stations, quickly drawing significant public attention to these unauthorized urban interventions. Buren introduced the notion of ‘in situ’ in visual arts in order to characterize the practice that intrinsically binds topological and cultural specificities of the places where the work is presented. For “Going for a Walk in a Zigzag” in EMMA he has conceived a unique total work that has taken over the museums gallery space. The exhibition also features a selection of Buren’s iconic interventions and event-based pieces from his extensive career for the first time in Finland. Daniel Buren regards every space as being full of possibilities. In a career spanning six decades, this pioneering French artist has challenged conventional ideas about art with his ephemeral, site-specific, boundary-pushing works critiquing art institutions. Buren is a widely acclaimed artist and winner of numerous major awards including the Golden Lion for best pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1986. One of his most famous permanent public works, “Les Deux Plateaux”, more commonly known as the “Colonnes de Buren” is located in the inner courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris. “Les Paravents (Folding Screens)” is a site-specific work created by Buren exclusively for EMMA’s space. Drawing inspiration from the museum’s open, horizontal space and 100-metre-wide window, the work consists of a maze of giant, colourful folding screens and Buren’s signature exploded “cabanes éclatées” which create surprising new spaces and varying views in which the viewer is immersed. The exhibition also spills outside the walls of the museum with a line-up of open-air events and interventions. A week before the opening, Buren’s signature vertical stripes enlivened Helsinki’s and Espoo’s winter landscape on over 300 JCDecaux billboards across the two cities. Buren is known for his practice of using 8.7 cm-wide vertical stripes as a visual tool to reveal hidden aspects of familiar spaces. Also featured is “Ployer/Déployer” an open-air piece of 105 striped flags to fill Espoo’s Tapionaukio square in May. Buren’s famous stripes additionally appear on the sails of optimist dinghies competing in a regatta on Nuottaniemi Bay in a piece called “Voile/Toile – Toile/Voile”, organised in collaboration with the Espoo Pursiseura Yacht Club EPS. The striped vests ransform the museum’s customer service personnel into a living part of a work called “Essai hétéroclite: Les Gilets, travail situé”.
Photo: Daniel Buren, Photo-souvenir, Folding Screens (Les Paravents), 2022. Work in situ, EMMA. © Ari Karttunen / EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art
Info: Curators: Arja Miller and Simon Friese, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Ahertajantie 5, Espoo, Finland, Duration: 2/3-17/7/2022, Days & Hours: Tue & Sat-Sun11:00-17:00, Wed-Thu 11:00-19:00, Fri 11:00-21:00, https://emmamuseum.fi
