Photo-souvenir: Monochrome électrique – Bleu B2 & Vert B3, travail situé 2012

Daniel Buren made this artwork, Photo-souvenir: Monochrome électrique – Bleu B2 & Vert B3, travail situé, sometime around now, and you can see two planes of colour hanging on the wall. It's such a simple gesture, isn't it? But it’s also so striking. I imagine him, Buren, experimenting with layers of translucent material, carefully adjusting the light to achieve this luminous effect. I wonder, did he know how it would turn out? There is a blue plane and a green plane. Each is topped by a line of smaller regular vertical marks. These top marks feel like a reference point, anchoring the electric planes to something knowable. The colours feel otherworldly, like an electric waterfall. It's really interesting how the light interacts with the surface, creating a sense of depth and atmosphere. This piece feels connected to the history of color field painting. Artists like Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko were also interested in the emotional power of color, exploring how it could evoke spiritual or transcendent experiences. Buren seems to extend this project into the realm of everyday experience.