Daniel Buren is currently creating an event at the Le Bon Marché store: A gigantic and explosive exhibition is on display in the middle of the famous store.

His famous vertical stripes

Famous for his vertical stripes, alternately white and colored, French artist Daniel Buren also plays with the square shape inspired by the glass roof tiles of the Le Bon Marché store in Paris.
For the ninth year, Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche is giving carte blanche to a contemporary artist. The guest of this new edition? Daniel Buren. This winter, at 24, rue de Sèvres, he is offering “Aux Beaux Carrés: in situ works”, an exhibition in two Acts, inspired by the square tiles that make up the famous glass roofs of the Bon Marché Rive Gauche.

Buren sublimates Le Bon Marché

In Act I, from January 9 to February 18, the French artist sublimates the department store with monumental works under the central glass roofs, on the second floor and on the windows. Its legendary alternating black and white bands of 8.7 centimeters, for their part, highlight the central escalator and the columns of the rue de Sèvres. An artistic feat, based on a play of shapes, movements, colors and lights.
Faithful to his work in situ, Daniel Buren creates, without a studio, works specifically for their environment. A rigorous and minimalist approach, which questions the relationship between the work of art and space. He then reveals, through his artistic language, all the characteristics of the place in which it is located. After the Palais Royal, the Élysée and the Palais d’Iéna, the artist today presents several original creations for Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche.

With “Aux Beaux Carrés: in situ works”, Daniel Buren made the bold bet of playing with an emblematic element of the Bon Marché Rive Gauche: the glass roof located in the heart of the department store. In front of the central escalator, the glass ceiling tiles give rise to two immense works composed of more than 1,500 polycarbonate squares and white adhesives on one hand, pink on the other, which unfold in space and diffract light, like an incredible three-dimensional checkerboard. Rue de Sèvres, we also find a checkerboard of white and colored squares, which is outlined throughout the eight windows.

More than 1,500 polycarbonate squares

On the second floor, two colorful cabins, one yellow, the other blue, invite the visitor to enter and wander freely. These creations then become the scene of a spectacular immersive experience thanks to the infinite reflections of the mirrors which cover the walls. Thus diverted, space is transformed into a giant kaleidoscope.
On the escalators, the columns of the rue de Sèvres and the reversible canvas shopping bag in the exhibition, Daniel Buren adopts his famous “visual tool”: alternating vertical stripes with a width of 8.7 centimeters. A signature pattern, used in situ to reveal all the specificities of a place. And today, those of Bon Marché Rive Gauche.

For the first time, Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche is offering its Carte Blanche in two stages.

Discover Act II of the exhibition “Aux Beaux Carrés: in situ works” from June 29 to August 15, 2024.

https://www.lebonmarche.com/fr/aux-beaux-carres-daniel-buren