Renowned French artist Daniel Buren has transformed the facade of the former Studio des Acacias in Paris with a striking black and white zigzag pattern, marking his role as mentor for the fifth edition of the Reiffers Art Initiatives prize. The installation features triangular shapes created with Buren's signature 8.7-centimeter-wide bands, applied across the entire building that once hosted legendary photographers like Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.

Collector and patron Paul-Emmanuel Reiffers invited Buren to create the facade intervention, which complements the opening of the Reiffers Art Center's new phase of development. "Paul-Emmanuel Reiffers invited me to work on the facade. I made a very simple drawing that he found to his taste. The black is there to adapt to the Reiffers Art Center's storefront. Constraints ultimately give shape to things," Buren explained while finishing the installation alongside his close assistants.

This year marks a significant shift for the mentorship program, as Reiffers chose a French artist after previously selecting international figures like Rashid Johnson and Lorna Simpson to support the young French art scene. "Until now, we had chosen international artists as mentors to support the young French scene. For this fifth edition, Daniel Buren's name appeared as an obvious choice," said Reiffers, who founded the Mazarine group.

Buren's influence on generations of artists stems partly from his role as a key figure at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Visual Arts, which offered an alternative to the École des Beaux-Arts in the 1990s. From the submitted portfolios, Buren selected video artist Miles Greenberg as his mentee, despite their vastly different artistic approaches. "Sometimes there are forms of osmosis between artists. But it's something very difficult to define. If I chose an artist so far from my work, it's not to denigrate his, but on the contrary to give him every chance," Buren explained.

The exhibition celebrating this mentorship is divided into two distinct spaces, allowing both artists to showcase their work independently. Miles Greenberg, whose work was featured at the 2024 Venice Biennale, presents sculptures and a performance on the ground floor, while Buren reserved the facade and the glass canopy covering the exhibition space for his interventions.

Buren's ceiling installation follows his methodical approach to color composition, with each glass panel covered by a colored film following a specific system. "To follow the game, you have to know it. It's a guide to avoid starting to compose, and to use polychromy without adding personal taste. This is what allows you to make a work due to context, that is to say site-specific," he said, articulating one of the founding principles of his artistic philosophy.

Reflecting on his own artistic influences, Buren revealed the lasting impact of early encounters with masterworks. "There are things that marked me, even when I thought I had eliminated everything. The first painting I saw by Paolo Uccello never left me. I was 16 or 17 years old. It was 'The Battle of San Romano' which is kept at the Louvre. We know today that the horse harnesses were at the time made of shiny mirror, a material that was surprisingly little used in art until the 1960s."

Buren demonstrated his deep knowledge of the Louvre last year when he led a guided tour focusing on Italian primitives for the museum's "Louvre Conversations" program. Another significant influence he mentioned was video artist Gerry Schum, who pioneered introducing contemporary art to television from the late 1960s. Schum had launched Projection gallery in Cologne and invited the young Buren to participate.

"All the constraints of cinema pushed me away, while art allowed tremendous freedom. But if video had been invented ten years earlier, I would have used it right away," Buren concluded, reflecting on how different mediums shaped his artistic development.

The exhibition featuring Daniel Buren and Miles Greenberg runs at the Reiffers Art Center in Paris's 17th arrondissement through December 13, representing a new chapter for the venue as it expands with plans for a restaurant opening across the street on Rue des Acacias.