“The past is stitched to the present, and the features of the ancient city reflect the mosaic that draws the profile of the current one, onto which history, punctuated by recent times, imposes the need to project itself from memory towards the future.
Ultimately, these are the evocative Buren flags in Poggibonsi, soaring multicoloured markers on the Jubilee road of the end of the millennium.”
— Luca Rugi, Mayor of Poggibonsi, Arte All’Arte IV, 1999
On the occasion of the 4th edition of Art to Art, the curator Florian Matzner He/She called to participate Daniel Buren who has chosen to speak at the Cassero of the Fortress of Poggibonsi.
"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.
Se i colori della guerra sono spenti e mimetici, i colori della pace devono essere ridenti e visibili: per questo i colori delle bandiere, tutte naturalmente a strisce come nel vocabolario visivo che da anni è una costante dell’artista, percorrono l’intero spettro cromatico.
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 and Angela Vettese, Art of Art IV, 1999
Credits
Daniel Buren
Polygon for Poggibonsi, 1999
153 flags in 9 colours
Installation at the Fortress
Art to Art IV in Poggibonsi
Attilio Maranzano Photograph
© Associazione Arte Continua
