daniel buuren monumenta

MS: In the centre of the work is an open space where you have put podiums that the public can climb on. The top side is covered with mirror glass. What is this space for?

DB: Metaphorically speaking, as soon as visitors step into the nave they enter a “forest” of vertical black and white posts formed by the legs supporting the coloured circles; in the centre of this “forest” there is a “clearing”, an empty, circular space, suddenly free, where they can stop and rest for a while. In this clearing, the coloured “sunshade” is no longer just over the visitors’ heads but nearly 35 metres higher up. The space is suddenly “empty”, compared to the clutter they have just been through, and by sucking them upwards should make them aware of the spatial dimension of the building and the volume of air and light filling it. The dome then becomes an enormous sphere, a great balloon or sort of airship, which suddenly rises freely into the sky, a sort of irresistible air current, in contrast to the devices anchored to the ground below.
The circular mirrors, that visitors can sit, lie or walk on, reflect the image of the central dome, whose pattern and colour are projected directly on to the ground with the first ray of sunshine.