Les Deux Plateaux by Daniel Buren / Les Colonnes de Buren at the 'Cour d'honneur' of the Palais Royal, Paris, France.
When I lost my mind.
***
Les Deux Plateaux, more commonly known as the Colonnes de Buren, is a highly controversial art installation created by the French artist Daniel Buren in 1985–1986. It is located in the inner courtyard (Cour d'Honneur) of the Palais Royal in Paris, France.
• The Buren columns are an 'in situ' installation built in 1986 which extends over 3000 m2 in the courtyard of the royal palace 1st arrondissement (opposite the Louvre).
• This work was commissioned by the Minister of Culture at the time (Jack Lang) to magnify the main courtyard of the royal palace, at the time occupied by a vulgar parking lot.
• The royal palace is indeed a historically charged place: built by Richelieu in 1628, it houses a palace, gardens, galleries and a theater 'la comédie Française'.
• It is also the place that houses the Ministry of Culture.
DESCRIPTION
• The installation includes 260 black and white striped columns (in Buren's work the bands are always 8.7 cm)
• The columns are made of Carrara marble (white) and black Pyrenean marble
The columns are aligned with reference to the classical architecture of the place and are arranged in a checkerboard shape.
The columns emerge in the open air as if it arose from the archaeological soil of Paris.
Of different heights, these columns visually create a rhythm that contrasts with the classicism of the colonnade of the royal palace.
Originally the water was to flow underground around the underground columns lit by light effects.
MEANING
• The form of the installation: the column, its material: the marble and its arrangement: straight make many echoes of ancient architecture.
• Daniel Buren also wanted to restore its popular character to the place, because its installation, in the shape of a checkerboard, invites the public to invest it: people sit on the columns, jump, climb, take a break ...
• The artist wanted to create contrasts: classic / modern;
• solemnity of the buildings.
CONTROVERSY
• The result provokes a public outcry: can we install zebra columns in a classified historic site?
• Petitions are circulating… Buren is accused of wanting to disfigure a mythical place!
• The ministry is even studying the destruction of the work before its inauguration.
• In the end, the artist sues the state and the project is carried out.
***
Daniel Buren (born 25 March 1938) is a French conceptual artist.
***
Les Deux Plateaux, more commonly known as the Colonnes de Buren, is a highly controversial art installation created by the French artist Daniel Buren in 1985–1986. It is located in the inner courtyard (Cour d'Honneur) of the Palais Royal in Paris, France.
As described by the architectural writer Andrew Ayers, "Buren's work takes the form of a conceptual grid imposed on the courtyard, whose intersections are marked by candy-striped black-and-white columns of different heights poking up from the courtyard's floor like sticks of seaside rock. ... In one sense the installation can be read as an exploration of the perception and intellectual projection of space."
The work replaced the courtyard's former parking lot and was designed to conceal ventilation shafts for an underground extension of the culture ministry's premises. Some of the columns extend below courtyard level and are surrounded by pools of water into which passersby toss coins.
The project was the "brainchild" of the culture minister Jack Lang and elicited considerable controversy at the time. It was attacked for its cost and unsuitability to a historic landmark. Lang paid no attention to the orders of the Commission des Monuments Historiques, which objected to the plan. In retrospect Ayers has remarked: "Given the harmlessness of the result (deliberate — Buren wanted a monument that would not dominate), the fuss seems excessive, although the columns have proved not only expensive to install, but also to maintain."
Les Deux Plateaux by Daniel Buren / Les Colonnes de Buren at the 'Cour d'honneur' of the Palais Royal, Paris, France.
When I lost my mind.
***
Les Deux Plateaux, more commonly known as the Colonnes de Buren, is a highly controversial art installation created by the French artist Daniel Buren in 1985–1986. It is located in the inner courtyard (Cour d'Honneur) of the Palais Royal in Paris, France.
• The Buren columns are an 'in situ' installation built in 1986 which extends over 3000 m2 in the courtyard of the royal palace 1st arrondissement (opposite the Louvre).
• This work was commissioned by the Minister of Culture at the time (Jack Lang) to magnify the main courtyard of the royal palace, at the time occupied by a vulgar parking lot.
• The royal palace is indeed a historically charged place: built by Richelieu in 1628, it houses a palace, gardens, galleries and a theater 'la comédie Française'.
• It is also the place that houses the Ministry of Culture.
DESCRIPTION
• The installation includes 260 black and white striped columns (in Buren's work the bands are always 8.7 cm)
• The columns are made of Carrara marble (white) and black Pyrenean marble
The columns are aligned with reference to the classical architecture of the place and are arranged in a checkerboard shape.
The columns emerge in the open air as if it arose from the archaeological soil of Paris.
Of different heights, these columns visually create a rhythm that contrasts with the classicism of the colonnade of the royal palace.
Originally the water was to flow underground around the underground columns lit by light effects.
MEANING
• The form of the installation: the column, its material: the marble and its arrangement: straight make many echoes of ancient architecture.
• Daniel Buren also wanted to restore its popular character to the place, because its installation, in the shape of a checkerboard, invites the public to invest it: people sit on the columns, jump, climb, take a break ...
• The artist wanted to create contrasts: classic / modern;
• solemnity of the buildings.
CONTROVERSY
• The result provokes a public outcry: can we install zebra columns in a classified historic site?
• Petitions are circulating… Buren is accused of wanting to disfigure a mythical place!
• The ministry is even studying the destruction of the work before its inauguration.
• In the end, the artist sues the state and the project is carried out.
***
Daniel Buren (born 25 March 1938) is a French conceptual artist.
***
Les Deux Plateaux, more commonly known as the Colonnes de Buren, is a highly controversial art installation created by the French artist Daniel Buren in 1985–1986. It is located in the inner courtyard (Cour d'Honneur) of the Palais Royal in Paris, France.
As described by the architectural writer Andrew Ayers, "Buren's work takes the form of a conceptual grid imposed on the courtyard, whose intersections are marked by candy-striped black-and-white columns of different heights poking up from the courtyard's floor like sticks of seaside rock. ... In one sense the installation can be read as an exploration of the perception and intellectual projection of space."
The work replaced the courtyard's former parking lot and was designed to conceal ventilation shafts for an underground extension of the culture ministry's premises. Some of the columns extend below courtyard level and are surrounded by pools of water into which passersby toss coins.
The project was the "brainchild" of the culture minister Jack Lang and elicited considerable controversy at the time. It was attacked for its cost and unsuitability to a historic landmark. Lang paid no attention to the orders of the Commission des Monuments Historiques, which objected to the plan. In retrospect Ayers has remarked: "Given the harmlessness of the result (deliberate — Buren wanted a monument that would not dominate), the fuss seems excessive, although the columns have proved not only expensive to install, but also to maintain."