Installation of a work by Daniel Buren at the Madre Museum in Naples
My first trip abroad as part of a team of installers was the installation of Daniel Buren’s work at the Madre Museum in Naples, entitled Axer/Désaxer, designed and produced by ArtProject. The project consisted of covering the entirety of the entry hall with aluminum panelling, a feature of the artist’s own expression, conforming to the architecture of the space. Split into two parts, one side with mirrors and the other with a composition of stripes and colors, which gave the artist his notoriety. The space was spanned by an axis that divided it asymmetrically. The mirror thus allows the visitor to face their own space thanks to a “mise en abime” technique.
COVERING THE WALLS, FROM FLOOR TO CEILING
From floor to ceiling, the transformed space invited a colorful stroll in the midst of mirrors and other motifs created by Buren. This construction site was like a baptism by fire for me, it unfolded in the image of the city, uproariously loud, but stimulating.
Not long ago, I was interviewed at the Gare de Nantes by a local journalist. The journalist asked me how to best describe my contribution to the concrete tree sculpture; as an artist or an artisan? Normally, this type of question would have left me speechless, had I not thankfully prepared a very polite, very vague answer:
“we are a bit of both”