Daniel Buren. Illuminating The Space

A leading exponent of Institutional Critique—the tendency towards the critical questioning of artistic institutions which emerged around the end of the 1960s—for the first time in 1965 Daniel Buren used a sun shade as a support for his “degree zero” of painting, the pattern of which with vertical white and colored strips measuring 8.7 cm became the visual tool used by the artist in all his works from then on, be it in exhibitions or public commissions.

“Illuminare lo spazio, lavori in situ e situati”, curated by Lorenzo Giusti, draws on the encounter between these key points in the artist’s research and his more recent interest in light—in particular in the qualities and esthetic/constructive potential of optic fiber. Within the evocative context of the Sala delle Capriate, Buren’s luminous fabrics (presented for the first time here in an Italian museum) redefine the environments historically created for the administration and the application of justice within the city, shedding “new light” on the ancient forms of the palazzo and on the frescoes to be found within it, detached from the façades of houses and churches in the ancient town and placed here in the 1980s.

From the encounter between a group of “in situ” interventions, imagined especially for the space of the room, and a series of “situated” works, i.e. adapted to the spaces of the large chamber yet ideally transferrable to other contexts, Buren’s project for the city of Bergamo starts out, one which for the first time may open its doors on the thought and creativity of the famous French artist, entrusting him with the reinterpretation of one of its most representative historical venues.

Buren’s is a work “for” and “in” the space, a unique sculptural piece with a strong sculptural connotation: independent and anti-decorative, and at the same time encouraging the interpretation and valorization of the preexistent artistic and architectural elements.

The fabrics in luminous fiber are the outcome of Buren’s research, the most recent and updated part of an original and widely celebrated creative career. They do not just represent the technological evolution of concepts and consolidated compositional principles, but to all effects and purposes constitute a new constructive condition, a new way of existing within space by virtue of their peculiar intrinsic qualities, of their being internal bearers of glowing material and at the same time a source of light for their surroundings.

After having been presented in a number of major European galleries and museums, Buren’s optic fibers are to be found here for the first time experiencing a new spatial dimension and unprecedented dialogue with a historical context of great value.