Daniel Buren | To Align: works in situ 2017

Bortolami is pleased to present Daniel Buren’s fourth exhibition with the gallery, and the first in
its new Tribeca location. For this show, Buren will completely transform the space, using both
colored filters and with new in situ works.

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.