“It is by working for a given exhibition site that the work in situ—and it alone—opens up the field for a possible transformation of the very place itself.”
— Daniel Buren

Daniel Buren (b. 1938). Photo-souvenir: Peinture-Sculpture (Painting-Sculpture), 1971. Work in situ. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Photo: Robert E. Mates and Paul Katz

Daniel Buren’s exhibitions and installations are conceived and created solely from their architectural and institutional settings. Buren uses the term “in situ” to describe the relationship between his work and the sites where they take place. A work in situ exists only in relation to the specific place that prompted it. In his work, Buren addresses characteristics of the host space and, in doing so, tends to transform it.

Buren examines a site’s structure, architecture, layout of rooms, exits, hallways, staircases, and windows. He also considers the more abstract aspects of a given space: the network of social, economic, and political forces at play in any given context. Because his work considers this constellation of variables, each is particular to the site it inhabits. From their very conception, his works are closely related to settings that represent the scenarios of everyday living. They are meant for and exist through direct interaction, eliciting the viewer’s sensibility, intelligence, and reflections.

In 1971 Buren conceived one of his first large scale in situ pieces for an exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Peinture-Sculpture (Painting-Sculpture) focused on the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and the building’s orientation around an open spiral ramp. The museum’s open central area, known as the rotunda, is topped by a circular skylight. Daniel Buren’s proposal involved hanging a 66 x 32 ft. canvas banner with his signature vertical stripes in alternating white and blue. The work would bisect the rotunda from top to bottom. As the viewers traversed the circular ramps, at times they would see a flat expanse of canvas, similar to a large painting. But as they continued around, the banner could also be experienced as a sculptural object. The project was indeed in situ; it specifically addressed the museum’s imposing architecture and transformed the way it functioned. Buren’s work engendered criticism from several other artists in the exhibition. Before the official opening, it was removed. Buren’s current in situ work at the Guggenheim continues the dialogue between the artist and the museum that began more than thirty years ago.

• Buren used the title Peinture-Sculpture (Painting-Sculpture) to suggest that his work contains qualities of both mediums. In what ways is it a painting? A sculpture? Do you feel the project was successful in functioning both as painting and sculpture? Why or why not?
• This work was made “in situ,” meaning that it was designed to interact with unique qualities of the Guggenheim Museum. What aspects of the museum do you think it addresses? Explain.
• Buren’s work for the Guggenheim International was highly controversial and was removed soon after the opening of the exhibition due to protests from other artists who claimed that by blocking views across the rotunda, Buren’s work interfered with theirs. Look at the photograph of Buren’s work. Do you think that the other artists had a valid point? Imagine that you were the museum’s director. Would you have ordered the work removed or kept it in the exhibition? Explain your reasoning.

• The removal of Daniel Buren’s Peinture-Sculpture (Painting-Sculpture) from the Guggenheim International Exhibition, 1971, is only one of many examples of controversies that have been generated by the visual arts. Other recent controversies include:
  
  • In 1989 artist Richard Serra’s sculpture Tilted Arc (1981) was removed from Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan after an eight-year struggle between the government’s General Services Administration (GSA) and the artist.
  • Sensations: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, a 2000 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, was denounced by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who threatened to withdraw municipal support from the institution.
  • In 2002, a sculpture by artist Eric Fischl, which was commissioned as a memorial to those who died at the World Trade Center, was removed from Rockefeller Center after complaints that the piece was disturbing and distasteful.
  
  Choose one of the debates mentioned above and research the circumstances. Describe your views on the controversy.
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• Daniel Buren has completed hundreds of works in situ around the globe (Anne Rorimer, “From Painting to Architecture,” Parkett 66 [2002], p. 62). Some are designed for interior sites, others for exteriors, and many combine elements of both. Some critics have suggested that in order to understand Buren’s works, you must see several of them (According to Douglas Crimp, “At the very least one must see a number of works and understand them as fragments of a single-minded, complex, and continuous investigation.” [Douglas Crimp, “Daniel Buren’s New York Work,” in Rudolf Herman Fuchs, Discoradance: a book/Cohérance: un livre {Eindoven, Netherlands: Van Abbemuseum, 1976}, p. 76]). Research images of Daniel Buren’s work on the internet and report on the various projects and strategies you discover.
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• To diagram his works, Daniel Buren frequently draws a floor plan on graph paper. Using graph paper, photographs of the site, and/or a three-dimensional foam core model, develop a plan for a work in situ for one of the following places:
  
  • Your room at home
  • Your classroom
  • Your school auditorium or cafeteria
  • The outside of your school
  • A local landmark
  
  Like Buren, be sure to consider not only the architecture, but also the usage and history of the space. Present the plans you create to your class.
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