Daniel Buren, Descriptif permettant la reconstruction de l'oeuvre
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF BUREN'S "DESCRIPTION" Daniel Buren Description allowing the reconstruction of the work of art. Given a wall, X, without a door or window and obligatory white. In the middle of the wall, using a lead pencil, a grid is drawn measuring 234.9 cm (width) to 234.9 cm (height). It is constituted by 81 squares of 26.1 to 26.1 cm; each is divided into nine equal squares. The width of the grid is unchangeable, as well as its frame (see further on), so that a wall, which is less than 287.1 cm long cannot be chosen. Yet the height has to be adapted to the height of the wall. 1.st: Ideally (yet not imperative): The wall is just 234.9 cm high. In this case the height of the grid (equal to its width) reaches from soil surface to the top of the wall. 2.nd: If the wall is higher than the grid, the grid is positioned in the middle of the wall. 3.rd: If the wall is lower than 234.9 cm, the grid is placed right in the middle of the wall, so that the uppermost and the lowest rows of the squares are symmetrically cut. Once the grid has been drawn onto the surface of the wall, it has to be framed on its left and right by two vertical stripes 26.1 cm running from the top to the bottom of the wall. These stripes must be painted with a red which comes as close as possible to the colour defined as "PANTONE Red 032 C" within the "Pantone Color Selector 1000/Coated edition 1995" programme. The painting of the stripes must be as flat as possible, without texture, a surface just like the wall next to the work of art. When the grid has been drawn on the wall and the two stripes framing it have been painted, 13 elements of acrylic glass, with painted black stripes, have to be attached to the wall according to the sketch, the painted surface turned outside. When attaching these elements to the wall, one has to pay attention to the fact that not all of them are identical and that each of them has a specific place in the grid according to the sketch so that from one painted acrylic glass element to the next, the pattern of stripes is always alternating between transparent and black, transparent and black etc. Daniel Buren Paris 1998 |
