Poligono per Poggibonsi, Daniel Buren, 1999

"Daniel Buren chose to intervene at the Cassero of Poggibonsi, a military fortress designed by Sangallo and prototype for the Forte Belvedere in Florence. A place originally created for military purposes, therefore surrounded by military walls. Buren outlined the stronghold in front of the Cassero with a series of flags arranged in an arrow shape: a form also of military origin that the artist transforms into an opportunity for a grand gesture of peace; the flags are arranged on the walls of the fortress, that is, on its most visually aggressive part. On three sides of their perimeter, the artist raised 153 steel poles, each 6 meters high, to which just as many banners are attached, freely moving in the air.

If the colors of war are dull and camouflaged, the colors of peace must be bright and visible: for this reason the colors of the flags, all naturally striped as in the visual vocabulary that has been a constant of the artist for years, cover the entire chromatic spectrum.

A defensive architectural structure becomes highly visible and presents itself not only to visitors but also to occasional observers, like a joyful rainbow recognizable from the Via Cassia, the Siena-Florence highway, and other side roads."

Florian Matzner e Angela Vettese, Arte all’Arte IV, 1999