Bortolami is pleased to present Daniel Buren’s Tondi, a series of situated works composed of steel, multi-colored acrylic, mirror, and white 8.7 cm stripes.
The Tondi were initially exhibited at Le Centquatre-Paris in France in 2015, and subsequently at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogota, Colombia, in 2017. In their new, third configuration at Bortolami, they are situated within the specific architecture of the gallery. A limited-edition, fullyillustrated publication with texts by artist Liam Gillick and curator Annie Wischmeyer will accompany the exhibition.
The gallery will simultaneously present the new documentary film on Buren’s work, Beyond time, as far as the eye can see. The six-and-a-half-hour film organizes his expansive career in several segments, each focusing on a specific aspect of his work, and functions as a comprehensive cinematic catalogue. Conceived to be viewed in chapters, the film will be screened in the viewing room daily from 11:00am to 5:30pm.
In his over 50-year career, Daniel Buren is best known for his use of contrasting stripes as a visual tool that reveals the specific features and dimensions of a site, often transforming the environment for which it was specifically designed. He alters the perception and context of one's surroundings by modifying the navigation of space, enhancing lighting, obstructing viewpoints, and highlighting certain architectural features. Buren constructs his work—much of which is temporary—in the architecture of both public and private spaces ranging from subway platforms to museums.
Work in situ - "denotes a work made for a particular site, for a particular time and exhibited in this particular site, and therefore not transportable to another place." Buren has also identified himself as an artist who "lives and works in situ."
Situated work - "a work for the most part inspired by a particular location, but made with the intention that the very same elements of the original work can be reinstalled in different sites following a series of rules, changing each time in response to the given place. In turn, the site is changed by the work."
Visual tool - the sign of white and color alternating stripes of exactly 8.7 cm. in width, as derived from the fabric he first used as a canvas in 1965. This functions as a tool in Buren's work, as a standard or unit of measure of formal properties. Significantly, it is also an intended sign that serves as a constant within the wildly variable parameters and juxtapositions of any and all in situ and situated work since 1965 without exception.
Daniel Buren (b. 1938) has been the subject of major museum exhibitions worldwide. His work is also included in prestigious private and public collections around the globe. Buren has exhibited in the Venice Biennale more than 10 times and was awarded the Golden Lion in 1986. He participated in documenta 5, 6, and 7. In 2007, he received the Praemium Imperiale for Painting from Japan and was selected to exhibit at MONUMENTA 2012 at the Grand Palais in Paris. He has been the subject of large-scale, solo exhibitions at Centre Pompidou in Málaga, Metz, and Paris, Guggenheim Bilbao and New York, among countless other institutions. Daniel Buren lives and works in situ.
