daniel buren's stripy optical interventions take over palazzo in italy

doing, undoing, redoing: daniel buren’s retrospective in italy

The historic Palazzo Buontalenti in Pistoia, Italy, becomes the canvas for Daniel Buren’s retrospective titled ‘Doing, Undoing, Redoing. Works in situ and situated 1968-2025’. From historical reflections to newly conceived interventions that will continue to unfold across the city until July 27th, the exhibition explores Buren’s decades-long practice of transforming architectural spaces through colors, shapes, materials, and his signature motif — alternating vertical stripes.

The experience extends to the courtyard of Piazza del Duomo with the installation, La Facciata ai Venti, which suspends black-and-white striped fabrics from the storied arches. Animated by fans and rippling with the wind, these tapestries recall the visual rhythms of the nearby Cathedral and Baptistery in chromatic motion. These signature optical illusions continue inside twelve gallery rooms, tracing Buren’s evolution from early paintings created in 1965 and vibrant, three-dimensional Cabanes, to high reliefs and recent luminous installations. A dedicated section revisits his previous works in Tuscany, underscoring the exhibition’s core focus on his long-standing connection with the region.

all images courtesy of Pistoia Museums Foundation

signature stripes turn the historic palazzo into a canvas

The program of Doing, Undoing, Redoing revolves primarily around the Palazzo Buontalenti, a sixteenth-century Florentine structure opposite Palazzo de’ Rossi. Throughout the exhibition’s run, the itinerary will extend to other locations of Pistoia Museum, situating newly commissioned works that interact with the architectural heritage of the sites and the interventions that Daniel Buren has already created in the area since the 2000s.

Beyond being framed by space, the French artist’s interventions directly transform them, engaging directly with the architecture, light, and cultural history of their surroundings. A distinct motif of this philosophy are the iconic alternating vertical stripes, both white and colored, and always 8.7 centimers wide. This comes from the industrial fabric Buren used since 1965 for his paintings, which he took up after 1967 in words created in urban contexts, in institutional and non-institutional places of art and culture. This philosophy is evident in Dalla terrazza alla strada: livello, a striped mural adapted and integrated into the Palazzo de’ Rossi’s exterior wall, with dynamic alterations that seem to slide on the wall and create a shifting perspective for those walking past it.

Daniel Buren presents retrospective titled ‘Doing, Undoing, Redoing. Works in situ and situated 1968-2025’

Over the decades, his work has expanded into sculptural, architectural, and performative dimensions, utilizing diverse materials such as glass, mirrors, fabric, and plexiglass. Notably, he creates works in situ — an approach central to the exhibition and lending it its title — which rejects the independence of the works, strictly linked to the physical (space, architecture, materials) and cultural (history, traditions, community) characteristics of the places in which he creates and places his works.

Daniel Buren’s affinity for Italy, and particularly Tuscany, has resulted in numerous site-specific works, including Muri Fontane a tre colori per un esagono in Villa La Magia and La Cabane Éclatée aux Quatre Salles at the Gori Collection in Santomato di Pistoia. As part of the exhibition program, Buren’s film À contre-temps, à perte de vue (2018) is being screened to provide an in-depth look at his artistic journey through 52 thematic chapters. Accompanying the exhibition, a catalog featuring an interview with the artist further contextualizes his ongoing dialogue with architecture and public space.

staged at the historic Palazzo Buontalenti in Pistoia, Italy