daniel buuren monumenta

Work in situ for Daniel Buren’s solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York from March to June 2005.

A tower in the Guggenheim Museum reaching from the ground to the top floor, penetrating each ramp to the outside wall and encompassing the entrance to the museum, the cloakroom, the reception desk and ticket office. Its tip was in the exact centre of the museum’s rotunda. This construction was lined with medium density fibreboard panels covered with mirrors, which espoused the architectural structure. It was oriented in the same way as the streets and avenues of Manhattan. The inside, darkened by a tarpaulin, was artificially lit, while the literally dazzling light in the remaining three-quarters of the rotunda was intensified by the mirrors. Vertical green strips were stuck on the upper part of the spiral balustrade and magenta filters were laid on every second pane of the skylight. When the sun shone, the colour was projected into the ascending ramp, usually filled with exhibits but here deliberately left empty.