Colonnes de Buren/Les Deux Plateaux

The installation you are approaching, Les Deux Plateaux, occupies the main courtyard of the Palais Royal. When the French government commissioned artist Daniel Buren to transform this space in 1985, the area served a far more mundane purpose as a parking lot for ministry officials. The 260 columns of varying heights you see today were installed to hide ventilation shafts for an underground renovation project, turning a hidden utility requirement into a major landmark.