Daniel Buren's fabrics of light illuminate Bergamo, for the first time in Italy

It opened on July 9, and runs until October 1, the exhibition Daniel Buren. Illuminating Space, Works in Situ and Situated, which brings works by French artist Daniel Buren (Boulogne-Billancourt, 1938) to the Palazzo della Ragione in Bergamo’s Sala delle Capriate. Organized on the initiative of GAMeC - Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo and curated by the latter’s director, Lorenzo Giusti, the exhibition aims to present Buren’s work within a symbolic place of one of the Italian cities most affected by the recent pandemic: a gesture with a strong symbolic value intended as a sign of rebirth.

In the context of the Sala delle Capriate, Buren’s luminous textiles, presented for the first time in an Italian museum, redefine the rooms historically used for the administration and exercise of city justice, shedding “new light” on the ancient forms of the Palazzo and the frescoes preserved there, detached from the facades of the houses and churches of the ancient urban village and placed here in the 1980s. The luminous fiber sheets are the ultimate outcome of Buren’s research, the recent and updated part of his creative journey: they are not intended to represent only the technological evolution of established compositional concepts and principles, but they are meant to represent a new constructive condition, a new way of existing in space, because of their intrinsic qualities, their being internal bearers of radiant substance and, at the same time, a source of light for the environments.

From the encounter between a group of “in situ” interventions, imagined specifically for the space of the hall, and a series of “situated” works, that is, adapted to the spaces of the great hall but ideally transferable to other contexts, comes Buren’s project for the city Bergamo, which for the first time opens its doors to the thought and creativity of the famous French artist by entrusting him with the reinterpretation of one of its most representative historical places.

Buren’s is intended to be a work “for” and “in” space, a sculptural unicum with a strong plastic, independent and anti-decorative connotation, and, at the same time, with a predisposition for the interpretation and enhancement of pre-existing artistic and architectural elements.

“The opening of Daniel Buren’s exhibition at Palazzo della Ragione is the most visible sign of GAMeC’s desire to be close to the community of Bergamo even in this delicate phase of restart,” says Lorenzo Giusti. “In fact, the appointment complements the activities promoted by the Gallery in recent weeks and designed for different audiences, including the Children’s Campus (The Museum is Present) in the museum’s rooms and the Radio GAMeC Real Live shows hosted in the courtyard.”

“At such a difficult time for the economy and for culture,” adds Alberto Barcella, president of GAMeC, “the museum has been able to count on the continued support of its Founding Members-the City of Bergamo and TenarisDalmine-as well as on important new supporters, such as Barcella Elettroforniture and Italgen, whose contributions have been added to the consolidated contributions of Fondazione UBI, Bonaldi Motori and Carvico.”

A leading exponent ofInstitutional Critique, the trend toward critical questioning of art institutions that emerged around the end of the 1960s, Daniel Buren first used an awning as a support for his own Grade 0-reduced painting in 1965, whose 8.7-cm pattern of vertical white and colored bands became, from that point forward, a visual device used by the artist in all his work, from exhibitions to public commissions. Illuminating Space, In Situ and Situated Works stems from the encounter between these fundamental directions in the artist’s research and his more recent interest in light, and in particular in the qualities and aesthetic and constructive potential of fiber optics.

The exhibition will be on view, with free admission, Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Pictured: Daniel Buren, Fibres optiques tissées, installation view at the exhibition Illuminare lo spazio, lavori in situ e situati, GAMeC, Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, 2013 - 2020. Copyright Daniel Buren by SIAE 2020. Photo by Lorenzo Palmieri

Daniel Buren's fabrics of light illuminate Bergamo, for the first time in Italy

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