Author : Daniel Buren Born in Boulogne-Billancourt in 1938, Daniel Buren is an important figure of the French contemporary art scene. He is known for his use of vertical, 8.7cm-wide, alternating white and coloured stripes, which he calls “visual tools”. For some, these stripes are also the artist's "trademark" and signature. Buren was one of the first artists to work almost exclusively in situ - and the first to use this term in reference to visual arts – making his work relate specifically to the site where it is made a... Read more

Author : Daniel Buren
Born in Boulogne-Billancourt in 1938, Daniel Buren is an important figure of the French contemporary art scene. He is known for his use of vertical, 8.7cm-wide, alternating white and coloured stripes, which he calls “visual tools”. For some, these stripes are also the artist’s “trademark” and signature. Buren was one of the first artists to work almost exclusively in situ – and the first to use this term in reference to visual arts – making his work relate specifically to the site where it is made and shown. Buren has produced almost two thousand installations worldwide to date. In 1986 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. That same year he completed a seminal work in the courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris, Les Deux Plateaux (Two Planes), popularly known as Buren’s Columns. In 2007, Daniel Buren was awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale.

The Centre Pompidou-Metz has developed a privileged relationship with Daniel Buren notably through the Constellation pre-inauguration event in 2009 which produced two projects: 5,610 flammes colorées pour un arc-en-ciel (5,610 coloured flames make a rainbow), a site-specific work in the Rue Serpenoise in Metz, and, in September, Couleurs superposes (Layered colours), a performance which he directed at the Metz Métropole Opera House and Theatre.
A year after its opening, the Centre Pompidou-Metz has invited Daniel Buren to produce a project specifically for Galerie 3, in a joint initiative with Luxemburg’s Mudam (Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art). Buren has created a site-specific piece for the Mudam’s Grand Hall, entitled Architecture, contre-architecture : transposition, which will be shown until May 2011. The Centre Pompidou-Metz then takes up this proposal with an installation that will integrate a museographic structure.
A catalogue will accompany the exhibition.