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Twenty-five Enamel Plates-Alternate View

Daniel Buren

Twenty-five Enamel Plates-Alternate View
1993
Unique installation of 25 elements, each steel (enameled in white and unique color), from a series of 15 unique colors, to be mounted on a wall in the prescribed manner

Installation dimensions are variable, each plate is 17 1/8 x 17 1/8 inches (43 1/2 x 43 1/2 cm)
Limited to 15 installations
Each installation is produced in a unique color
Includes a signed and numbered certificate
(Inventory #33128)

Twenty-five Enamel Plates
The 25 enameled plates are to be mounted equidistantly in five rows of five plates, and equidistantly in five columns of five plates. The precise placement of the plates within the rows has to be calculated so that there is a continuity of the plates’ pattern of alternating vertical stripes (8.7 cm) within the installation. The top plate of each column must touch the ceiling, the bottom one of each column must touch the floor, with the plates equally spaced between ceiling and floor. The rows begin at the very left, with plates touching the wall’s edge. The plates within the rows are to be equally spaced so that they ideally fill the whole width of the wall, yet still maintain the alternating stripe pattern. By doing this, more often than not, there will be an empty space between the last plate and the right edge of the wall. If this empty space exceeds 69.6 cm (which equals four spaces of two stripes’ width) and thus allows a wider spacing of the plates within the rows, the four spaces between the five plates have to be increased by two stripes’ width each, so that the alternating stripe pattern of the installation is maintained. Therefore, spaces between plates along the rows equal either 1 stripe (which is the minimum required) or 3 stripes or 5 stripes, etc. The wall must be at least 217.5 cm high and 252.3 cm wide (the minimum space needed to fit 25 plates), and may be of any color or texture. If the wall has a door, window, or any other feature at a spot where a plate should be placed, that plate should be omitted. The installation cannot be executed if more than 10 such displacements must occur.

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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.

-Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York

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