Daniel Buren sublimates the Parisian facade of Rougier & Plé

The sun plays with the stripes, it plays through the windows covered in red, yellow, blue. It took a little time (seven years, including confinement) to see his wish granted; this September 19, after fifteen days of construction, Pierre Madelpuech, co-CEO of Rougier & Plé, is almost still rubbing his eyes at this unexpected gift from one of the most renowned artists internationally.

The Buren that this major French distributor of creative leisure and fine arts supplies dreamed of is here. The work in the pure vein of the master ofin situ still smells of fresh paint on the facade of the 13–15 boulevard des Filles-du-Calvairein the 3^e district of Paris. Nice present for the 170 years of the brand!

The former home of a great Parisian collector

To think that before, we passed this house, located a few steps from the Cirque d’Hiver, without even noticing it. Since the 1960s, the building has housed the Rougier & Plé brand. A hundred years earlier, the building had already been steeped in art, since it was the residence of Auguste Dutuit (1812–1902), famous for having bequeathed his extraordinary collection of more than 20,000 works to the city of Paris. It is thanks to Dutuit that we can admire (free of charge) the permanent collections of the Petit Palais. After him, the building will be rented for a long time, first by Moltenia recognized manufacturer of scientific precision instruments, then by Radiguet and Massiotwho, abandoning microscopes, launched into X-rays in 1895. We have always innovated at this address!

Buren’s art of inhabiting places

Titled Starting from a triangle, on-site work2024, the work of Daniel Buren is based on “the visual tool” : “The result is always the transformation of the place by the tool and access to the meaning of the latter thanks to its use in and by the place in question”, explains the artist who came to the inauguration of this new facade .

Thought in a lasting way for Rougier & Plé, who financed everything, the composition in alternating vertical bands, white and colored, 8.7 cm wide and harmoniously juxtaposed alongside colored windows, gives coherence to this atypical architecture which lacked unity. Artists of all stripes, and sometimes budding artists, painters, designers, architects, graphic designers, embroiderers and DIYers of beauty, are now united under the colors of Buren.