explained: 'The camera was placed so that the walls came in at either side of following resistances', and to turn
9;, and to turn to the root of one's problems as a way to
the screen. You couldn't see the rest of the studio, and my head was cut off
most of the time. The light was shining down the length of the corridor and
made shadows on the walls at each side of me.' [Interview with Willoughby
Sharp, Arts Magazine (March 1970) 23 J
These three dance exercises are based on a daily activity, walking, but by
breaking it up into detached motions they distort its ordinariness. For instance,
by emphasizing the hip movement, Nauman lavishly covers space, stressing his
presence in the corridor; by turning the step into a balancing act he lifts it out of
its everyday context. The disjunction of motion into a series of fragments echoes
the multiple frames of Eadweard Muybridge's sequential photographs of people
and animals in action, causing tension between movement and rest. The use of
the square on the floor is somewhat arbitrary - it could have been a circle or a
triangle, or the pieces could have been performed around the edges of the room
- but it serves to direct the movements and to formalize the exercises, giving
them more importance as dances than they would have had if Nauman had just
wandered aimlessly. for instance, in taking one convenient step forward in
Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square, Nauman reaches precisely the
middle of a side of the square. In Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the
Perimeter of a Square, the framing of the image is accentuated by cropping off a
part of the square, so that the field of action becomes restricted. The lopping off
of the performer's limbs or head serves to objectify the human body.
Nauman practised these dance exercises extensively before filming them. 'An
awareness of yourself comes from a certain amount of activity and you can't get
it from just thinking about yourself', Nauman stated in his interview with
Willoughby Sharp.
You do exercises, you have certain kinds of awarenesses that you don't have if you
read books. So the films and some of the pieces that I did after that for videotapes
were specifically about doing exercises in balance. I thought of them as dance-
were specifically about doing exercises in balance. I thought of them as dance-
problems without being a dancer, being interested in the kinds of tension that
arise when you try to balance and can't. Or do something for a long time and get
tired. In one of those first films, the violin film, I played the violin as long as I
could. I don't know how to play the violin, so it was hard, playing on all four strings
as fa st as I could for as long as I could. I had ten minutes of film and ran about
seven minutes of it before J got tired and had to stop and rest a little bit and then
finish it. [Avaiancl1e, no. 2 (Winter 1971) 27)
By reading the psychologist Frederick Perls' book Gestalt Theory, Nauman was
stimulated to place himself in an unfamiliar situation 'wh€re you can't relax
82//WORKING WITH THE SITUATION
make art. [... J
(oosje van I3ruggen. extract from 'Sounddan ce' in (oosje van Bruggen, Bruce Nauman (New York:
Rizzol i, 1988) 22 6-8.
Daniel Buren
The Function of the Studiol 11971
Of all the frames, envelopes and limits - usually not perceived and certainly
never questioned - which enclose and constitute the work of art (picture frame,
niche. pedestal. palace, church, gallery, museum, art history, economics, power,
etc.), there is one rarely even mentioned today that remains of primary
importance: the artist's studio. Less dispensable to the artist than either the
gallery or the museum, it precedes both. Moreover. as we shall see, the museum
and gallery on the one hand and the studio on the other are linked to form the
foundation of the same edifice and the same system. To question one while
leaving the other intact accomplishes nothing. Analysis of the art system must
inevitably be carried on in terms of the studio as the unique space of production
and the museum as the unique space of exposition. Both must be investigated as
customs, the ossifying customs of art. What is the function of the studio?
(1) It is the place where the work originates.
(2) It is generally a private place, an ivory tower perhaps.
(3) It is a stationary place where portable objects are produced.
The importance of the studio should by now be apparent; it is the first frame, the
first limit, upon which all subsequent frames/limits will depend.
What does it look like, physically, architecturally? The studio is not just any
hideaway, any room. 1 Two specific types may be distinguished:
(1) The European type, modelled upon the Parisian studio of the turn of the
century. This type is usually rather large and is characterized primarily by its
high ceilings (a minimum of 4 metres). Sometimes there is a balcony, to increase
the distance between viewer and work. The door allows large works to enter and
to exit. Sculptors' studios are on the ground floor, painters' on the top flooLln the
Buren//The Function of the Studio/ /83
 the is diffused by windows oriented towards the tum that work to be seen by others. Work produced in this way makes its passage,
north so to receive the most even and subdued illumination. 2 in order to exist, from one refuge to another. It should therefore be
if by whoever (except the artist assumes the
of more recent origin. This type is rarely built it from its place of to its of A
located as it is in reclaimed lofts, is Iy much in the studio must be seen, therefore, as an
not necessarily higher, but and wider. Wall infinite In order forthis to occur, from the momentofits
and floor space are abundant. Natural illumination plays a role, since the work must be isolated from the real world. All the same, it is in the studio,
the studio is lit by both night and if necessary. There is thus and in the studio, that it is closest to its own a from which it
between the products of these lofts and their on the walls will continue to distance itself. It may become what even its creator had not
and floors of modern museums, which are also illuminated day and by instead, as is usually the case, the greater of financial
interests and the dominant ideology. It is therefore only in the studio that the
work may be said to
This second type of studio has influenced the European studio of whether The work thus falls victim to a mortal paradox from which it cannot escape,
it be in an old barn or an abandoned urban warehouse. In both cases, the since its purpose a removal from its own reality, from its
architectural of studio and museum one the and origin. If the work of art remains in the studio, however. it is the artist that risks
vice versa is will not discuss those artists who transform part of death ... from starvation.
their studios into exhibition spaces, nor those curators who conceive of the to the world into which it is welcomed
museum as (museum, This gives rise to the ever-widening gap between
These are some of the studio's architectural characteristics; let us move on to the work and its (and not its placement), an abyss which, were it to become
what there. A private place, the studio is over the apparent, as sooner or later it must, would hurl the entire parade of art as we
artist-resident. since only that work which he desires and allows to leave his know it today and, 99 per cent of the time, as it is made) ilito historical oblivion.
studio will do so. olher operations, indispensable to the This gap is however, by the system which makes
of and museums, occur in this private place. For example, it is here that to ourselves as artist, historian and critic, the convention that establishes
the exhibition organizer, or the museum director or curator may the museum and the as inevitable neutral frames, the and
calmly choose among the works presented by the artist those to be included in definitive locales of art. Eternal realms for eternal art i
this or that exhibition, this or that collection, this or that The studio is The work is made in a which it cannot take into account. All
thus a convenience for the he may compose his exhibition the same, it is there that was ordered, forged, and only there may it be truly
to his own desire (and not that of the artist, although the artist is usually "<H'ror'"'' said to be in The contradiction becomes apparent: it is
content to leave well satisfied with the prospect of an by definition for a work to be seen in place; still, the place where we
content to leave well of an impossible by definition for a work to be seen in place; stiil, the place where we
Thus chance is since the organizer has not only selected the artist in see it influences the work even more than the place in which it was made and
but also selects the works he desires in the studio itself. The studio is from which it has been cast out. Thus when the work is in place, it does not take
thus also a where we find art. place (for the public), while it takes (for the public) only when not in
Before a work of art is exhibited in a museum or the studio is that is, in the museum.
also the to which critics and other specialists may be invited in the Expelled from the tower of its production, the work ends up in
that their visits will release certain works from this, their purgatory, so that which, while only reinforces the sense of comfort the work by
may accede to a state of grace on public (museum/gallery) or private taking shelter in a citadel which ensures that it will survive its passage. The work
walls. Thus the studio is a of multiple activities: production, storage and thus passes and it can exist in this way, predestined as it is by the
if all goes distribution. It is a kind of commercial depot. of its of from one enclosed the world of the to
Thus the first the studio, proves to be a filter which allows the artist to confined: the world of alt. The alignment of works on
select his work screened from public view, and curators and dealers to select in of a cemetery: whatever say, wherever

84 /WORKING WITH THE SITUATION BurenllThe Function of the Studio/ /85

 they come from, whatever their meanings may be, this is where they alJ arrive in
the end, where they are lost. This loss is relative, however, compared to the total
oblivion of the work that never emerges from the studio.
Thus, the unspeakable compromise of the portable work.
The status of the work that reaches the mu seum is unclear: it is at the same
time in place and in a place which is never its own. Moreover, the place for
which the work is destined is not defined by the work, nor is the work
speCifically intended for a place which pre-exists it and is, for all practical
purposes, unknown.
For the work to be in place without being specially placed, it must either be
identical to all other existing works, and those works in turn identical among
themselves, in which case the work (and all other identical works) may travel
and be placed at will; or the frame (museum/gallery) that receives the original
work and all other original - that is, fundamentally heterogenous _ works must
be adjustable, adapting itself to each work perfectly, to the millimetre.
From these two extremes, we can only deduce such extreme, idealizing yet
interesting formulations as:
(1) all works of art are absolutely the same, wherever and whenever produced,
by whatever artist. This would explain their identical arrangement in thousands
of museums around the world, subject to the vagaries of curatorial fashion;
(2) all works of art are absolutely different, and if their differences are respected
and hence both implicitly and explicitly legible, every museum, every room in
every museum, every wall and every square metre of every wall, is perfectly
adapted to every work.
The symmetry of these propositions is only apparent. If we cannot conclude
logically that alJ works of art are the same, we must acknowledge at least that
th~y aI:~ ~)U]1d~fllJfJ1,ll) t);1~.'Cm~ mer:,n.ftr,e~rW'errl\\1SL·~cthfbwle·crgli af feast that
they are all installed in the same manner, according to the prevailing taste of a
particular time. If on the other hand we accept the uniqueness of each work of
art, we must also admit that no museum ever totally adapts itself to the work;
pretending to defend the uniqueness of the work, the museum paradoxically acts
as if this did not exist and handles the work as it pleases.
To edify ourselves with two examples among many, the administration of the
Jeu de Paume in Paris [in1971 a museum of Impressionist art] has set Impressionist
paintings into the museum's painted walls, which thereby directly frame the
paintings. Eight thousand kilometres away at the Art Institute of Chicago
paintings from the same period and by the same artists are exhibited in elaborate
carved frames, like onions in a row.
86/ /WORKING WITH THE SITUATION
Does this mean that the works in question are absolutely identical, and that
they acquire their specific meanings only from the intelligence of those who
present them? That the 'frame' exists precisely to vary the absolute neutrality of
all works of art? Or does it mean that the museum adapts itself to the specific
meaning of each work? We may ask how it is that, seventy years after being
painted, certain canvases by Monet, for example, should be recessed into a
salmon-coloured wall in a building in Paris, while others in Chicago are encased
in enormous frames and juxtaposed with other Impressionist works.
If we reject propositions 1 and 2 above, we are still faced with a tJ1ird, more
common alternative that presupposes a necessary relationship between the
studio and the museum such as we know it today. Since the work which remains
in the studio is a non-entity, if the work is to be made, not to mention seen in
another place, in any place whatsoever, one of two conditions must apply; either
(1) the definitive place of the work must be the work itself. This belief or
philosophy is widely held in artistic circles, even though it dispen ses with all
analysis of the physical space in which the work is viewed, and consequently of
the system, the dominant ideology, that controls it as much as the specific
ideology of art. A reactionary theory if ever there was one: while feigning
indifference to the system, it reinforces it, without even having to justify itself,
since by definition (the definition advanced by this theory's proponents) the
space of the museum has no relation to the space of the work; or
(2) the artist, imagining the place where his work will come to grief, is led to
conceive all possible situations of every work (which is quite impossible), or a
typical space (this he does). The result is the predictable cubic space, uniformly lit,
neutralized to the extreme, which characterizes the museum/gallery of today. This
state of affairs consciously or unconsciously compels the artist to banalize his own
work in order to make it conform to the banality of the space that receives it.
worl< 111 order to mal<e It conrorm to the banality or the space tHat receIves It.
By producing for a stereotype, one ends up of course fabricating a stereotype,
which explains the rampant academicism of contemporary work, dissimulated
as it is behind apparent formal diversity.
[n conclusion, I would like to substantiate my distrust of the studio and its
simultaneously idealizing and ossifying function with two examples that have
influenced me. The first is personal, the second, historical.
(1) While still very young - J was seventeen at the time - I undertook a study of
Proven~al painting from Cezanne to Picasso with particular attention given to
the influence of geography on works of art. To accomplish my study, I not only
Buren//The Function of the Studio/ /87
travelled throughout south-eastern France but also visited a large number of
artists, from the youngest to the oldest, from the obscure to the famou s. My visits
afforded me the opportunity to view their work in the context of their studios.
What struck me about all their work was first its diversity, then its quality and
richness, especially the sense of reality, that is, the 'truth', that it possessed,
whoever the artist and whatever his reputation. This 'reality/truth' existed not
only in terms of the artist and his workspace but also in relation to the
environment, the landscape.
It was when llater visited, one after the other, the exhibitions of these artists
that my enthusiasm began to fade, and in some cases disappear, as if the works I
had seen were not these, nor even produced by the same hand s. Torn from their
context, their 'environment', they had lost their meaning and died , to be reborn as
forgeries. I did not immediately understand what had happened, nor why I felt so
disillusioned. One thing was clear, however: deception. More than once I revisited
certain arti sts, and each time the gap between studio and gallery widened, finally
making it impossible for me to continue my visits to either. Although the reasons
were unclear, something had irrevocably come to an end for me.
I later experienced the same disillusion with friends of my own generation,
whose work possessed a 'reality/truth' that was clearly much closer to me. The
loss of the object, the idea that the context of the work corrupts the interest that
the work provokes, as if some energy essential to its existence escapes as it passes
through the studio door, occupied all my thoughts. This sense that the main point
of the work is lost somewhere between its place of production and place of
consumption forced me to consider the problem and the significance of the work's
place. What I later came to realize was that it was the reality of the work, its
'truth', its relationship to its creator and place of creation, that was irretrievably
lost in this transfer. In the studio we generally find finished work, work in progress,
abandoned work, sketches - a collection of visible evidence viewed simultaneously
that allows an understanding of process; it is this aspect of the work that is
e)~ti.nKL!ish~d.J;>.v !h~ IO.!t~~lJm:~ ~s\r~R'i!J~til.II:..>lii\'iS"t,t~tt'rVl' i~~l't!~U~;ln(id'f"Ys
extinguished by the museum's desire to 'install'. Hasn't the term installation come
to replace exhibition? In fact, isn't what is installed close to being established?
(2) The only artist who has always seemed to me to exhibit real intelligence in his
dealings with the museum system and its consequences, and who moreover
sought to oppose it by not permitting his works to be fixed or even arranged
according to the whim of some departmental curator, is Constantin Brancusi. By
disposing of a large part of his work with the stipulation that it be preserved in the
studio where it was produced, Brancusi thwarted any attempt to disperse his work,
frustrated speculative ventures, and afforded every visitor the same perspective as
himself at the moment of creation. He is the only artist who, in -order to preserve
SS//WORKING WITH THE SITUATION
the relationship between the work and its place of production, dared to present his
work in the very place where it first saw light, thereby short-circuiting the
museum's desire to classify, to embellish and to select. The work is seen, for better
or worse, as it was conceived. Thus, Brancusi is also the only artist to preserve what
the museum goes to great lengths to conceal : the banality of the work.
It might also be said - but this requires a lengthy study of its own - that the way
in which the work is anchored in the studio has nothing whatsoever to do with
the 'anchorage' to which the museum submits every work it exhibits. Brancusi
also demonstrates that the so-called purity of hi s works is no less beautiful or
interesting when seen amid the clutter of the studio - various tools; other works,
some of them incomplete, others complete - than it is in the immaculate space
of the sterilized mu seum.5
The art of yesterday and today is not only marked by the studio as an essential,
often unique, place of production; it proceeds from it. All my work proceeds from
its extinction.
I am well aware that, at least at the beginnings of and sometimes throughout their careers, all
artis ts must be conten t with squa lid hovels or ridiculously tiny rooms: but I am describing the
studio as an archetype. Artists who maintain ramshackle wo'rkspaces desp ite their drawbacks
are obviously arti sts for whom the idea of possessing a studio is a necessity, Thus they often
dream of possessing a studio very similar to the archetype desc ribed here.
2 Thus the architect mus t pay more attention to the lighting. or ientation, etc., of tile studio than
most artists ever pay to the exh ibition of their works once they leave the studio!
3 We are speaking of New York. since the United States. in its desire to rival and to suppl ant the
long lamented 'School of Paris', actually reproduced all its defects. including the insane
centralization which. while ridiculous on the scale of France or even Euro pe, is absolutely
grotesque on the scale of the United States. and certainly antithetical to the development of art.
4 The American museum with its electric illumination may be contrasted with its European
4 The AmeriCan nllisetiin with' its' electric iliumina'tiori niay be conirasted wfih' rts European
cou nterpart, usually illu minated by natural light thanks to a profusion of skylights. Some see
these as opposites, when in fact they merely represent a stylistic difference between Europea n
and American production.
5 Had Brancusi's studi o remained in the impasse Ronsin, or even in the artist's house (even if
removed to another location), Brancusi's argument would only have been strengthened. (This
text was written in 1971 and refers to the recons tructi on of Brancusi's studio in the Mu seum of
Modern Art, Paris. Since then. the main building5 have been reconstructed in the Place Beaubourg
opposite the Centre Pompidou, whiCh renders the above observation obsolete - author's note.)
Daniel Buren, 'The Function of the Studio', written in 1971: first published, translated by Thomas
Repensek. in October, no. 10 (Fall 1979) 51-8.
Buren/ /The Function of the Studio// S9

Daniel Buren
The Function of the Studio Revisited/ / 2007
The function of the studio is absolutely, basically, the same as it always was. The
studio as I defined it in 1971 has not changed, although perhaps more artists are
escaping their studios today than when I wrote 'The Function of the Studio'. Artists
have a much looser idea of what constitutes a studio than they did in the early
1970s. However, I think it is still the main place of worl< for the majority of artists.
The function of the studio is the making of a work of art for an ideal place, a
work which may be endlessly manipulated . If you work most of the time in a
studio you produce works that are destined to be installed somewhere else. That
was the key point of my text - in a studio you produce work to be shown
anywhere - whether in a gallery, museum or private collection - and you must
work with a preconceived idea of what these rooms might be like, as the final
destination of the work is totally unknown.
It is a different case when the artwork calls on the specifics of its location for
its identity and completion and cannot be installed or seen in another place. This
returns us to the idea of the site as an integral component of the work whereby
it can only be understood at that site, which is in turn transformed by the artwork ,
forever or for the time that they are together. If the work is created thus there is
a break from the idea and the idealism of the studio.
When the studio becomes a place to work on something that will be visible
only at a particular site, then the spirit of production is entirely different. But
the function of the studio as I defined it a long time ago is exactly the same
even if the work seems to be different. A studio obliges a certain type of work
even if you are just using it to prepare a plan. Today, of course, you have many
more variations of the studio, yet that which I defined in the text is still
mm[ll~tf.tv.Ll{ali9 ill th~c"11'iillNj~' .9~ntfd'i. ~1'i'ICino aen'Ii.~crTi'(Trl~ ~(exLns - m\)
completely valid in the majority of cases. The system still prescribes the result
under the same restrictions.
The studio process creates objects that complement our society of exchange
and market value. The market value of an artwork that is produced in the studio
is directly influenced by exchangeability and critically rel ies on an eternal
nomadism, not of the producer but of the artwork. Needless to say, I reversed
that habit. The art market barely existed in 1971. It is a hundred times more
prevalent now than when I wrote the text. Then it existed for histor ical art rather
than for any young working artist, and it would have been a d ream to even
survive by selling work. Today, if you start out as an artist at twenty years of age
you cannot imagine that you are not going to make all adequate,living fr0111 your
90/ /WORKING WITH THE SITUATION
work. If you cannot, you simply do not do it. In the 1980s, although it was a little
provocative, there were artists who would say, 'If I'm not commercially successful
ill two or th ree years I'll go back to the stock exchange and stop what I'm doing:
The most surprising thing is that some of the people who said that succeeded
with their art, such as Jeff Koons. Not that he represents the majority, as obviously
it was and still is very hard to survive on artistic production. Today artists are
much more aware of the market than wa s the case thirty-five years ago, reinforcing
even more the idea of objects that are absolutely born of the studio. [... )
In 1971 my standpoint was unusual because, to the best of my knowledge,
Brancusi was the only one who saw the contradiction between the work and the
way that the work was shown. In leaving his studio to the French state he decided
to keep the very lively aspect of the arti st in the stud io where the work was most
comprehensible. He wanted to show that it is this site where the work is most
readily understood. It is where you speak with the artist and see the environment
where he creates. [n the case of the Brancusi studio, in its first incarnation, you
had a conceptual tota lity as designated by the artist rather than a reconstruction
that was never requested by him, as happened later when the studio was
reconstructed outside the Centre Pompidou in 1977 and again, and even worse,
in 1997. From this history two perspectives are presented ~hat define contrasting
attitudes: critici sm or analysis.
For me, analysis leads to criticism and criticism lead s to action. In 1968, when
I decided to quit the studio, [ hadn't reali zed all of the implications. Many familiar
doors were immediately closed to me, although luckily others opened that r
hadn't even been aware of. To not have a studio, as well as to have a studio,
automatically implies the production of a certain type of work. I can see that the
day when I cannot move or travel any more, as I have done over the past forty
years, I will either stop working or my work will be different. The only thing that
I can imagine helping to keep it going in its present form might be my long
experience of moving and looking at different places. Perha ps with documentation
expei-i"ence of moving imd lo'oking at ditlereiit plJe"es.'rerha ps With dbcuhieflt~ft16ii
I could still work, but I would miss those little details that you can only see when
you are there, when you meet people. My work would be completely different
and certainly, as far as I tell from my viewpoint today, woul.d revert to more
traditional aspects. I prefer not to think about it!
Daniel Buren, extracts from 'The Function of th e Stud io Revisited', co nversation betwee n Daniel
Buren an.d the curato rs/editors Jens Hoffmann, Christina Kennedy and Georgina Jackso n, in. Th e
Snldio , exhib itio n catalogue (Dublin: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane , 2007 ),
Buren/ /The Function of the Studio Revisited//91