In the late 1960s, Daniel Buren (French, born 1938), purposefully renouncing the artist’s studio, began adorning public spaces with his posters, the so-called affichages sauvages. The colorful vertical stripes, precisely 3.4 inches wide, have become Buren’s trademark piece, a visual tool he has used to this day. Their form is deliberately banal, devoid of content or signification. They forcefully contradict the belief in the autonomy of the work of art, instead alerting the beholder first and foremost to the site at which they are affixed. Buren thus conquered a new domain for art, one that is invisible save for these minimalist signs.Daniel Buren develops a sequence of site-specific interventions for the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden that engage with Hermann Billing’s neoclassicist building. The wall-high structures decisively alter our perception of the architecture and, by interacting with light, color, and reflections, create impressive spatial sensations of the rooms in which they are deployed. The Café Kunsthalle also undergoes a new configuration, which will be preserved for the duration of the exhibition and beyond.
Furthermore Daniel Buren spans the exhibition across the urban landscape of Baden-Baden. With more than 100 flags, designed by the artist, the glamorous spa town is transformed into an extension of the exhibition space, with the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden as its core.His Excellency, the French Ambassador to Germany is the patron of this exhibition.
We are grateful for the support bestowed by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, Daimler AG, Brenner’s Parkhotel & Spa, Baden-Baden and the City of Baden-Baden.The comprehensive catalogue, Daniel Buren Allegro Vivace, published by Karola Kraus and Cora von Pape at Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne (ca. 200 p. German/French) documents approximately 130 works by Buren. It exemplifies systematically the way the artist deals with space, discussed in the texts of Daniel Buren and essays by Karola Kraus, Doris Krystof and Cora von Pape.