The fifth edition of MONUMENTA, dedicated this year to artist Daniel Buren, welcomed 259,041 visitors from May 9 to June 21, 2012, in the Nave of the Grand Palais. This success confirms the importance of the event, created in 2007 by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, in order to strengthen France’s place on the international artistic scene and to allow the greatest number of people access to contemporary creation.
With «Excentrique(s), work in situ», Daniel Buren chose to show the place as a gigantic public place where one can walk, meet, discuss, stroll, sometimes for several hours, stop, upsetting the perception of each visitor and immersing them in color through the grace of a subtle and daring play with space and light. For the first time in the history of MONUMENTA, the artist wanted to integrate all the ancillary spaces in his project, thus making the box office he placed on the Champs-Elysées, the reception, the restaurant, rest areas and the bookshop of the inseparable elements of his work.
The average daily attendance was 6,817 visitors. The nightlife (four days a week between 19h and midnight) was a great success covering 19.4% of the total attendance of the exhibition. The specific lighting designed by Daniel Buren has indeed transformed the daytime work, under natural light, into another, night and electric, in the evening, inviting visitors to discover the many facets and variations throughout the day.
The 51 mediators, available to the public in the Nave of the Grand Palais, accompanied the visitors in the discovery of the work. Specific school workshops were organized as well as thematic workshops for young audiences: dance workshops in partnership with the Théâtre national de Chaillot, scientific initiation workshop with the Palais de la Découverte. The demand has never been so high, and 6,325 young visitors, school and individual, were welcomed during these workshops and thematic visits, an average of 288 children per day. Mediation devices for disabled audiences, including Braille and large print plans and booklets, sign language tours (LSF) and a specific extension of the MONUMENTA website, for all.monumenta.com, have been set up to make the event accessible to all audiences.
Daniel Buren actively participated in the selection of artistic interventions for MONUMENTA evenings (accessible with the entrance ticket). Thus, «Concert located», carte blanche to Guy Lelong, De rerum natura de Lucrèce, read in Latin by Pierre Guyotat, BurenCirque Nord/Sud by Dan Demuynck and Fabien Demuynck, Libido Sciendi by Pascal Rambert and Central Park by Julie Nioche were a great success, welcoming nearly 13,698 spectators. On June 21, the Fête de la Musique, the event closed with Bal Blanc, an evening featuring a unique six-hand DJ set hosted by Jamie XX, Caribou and Four Tet.
The website monumenta.com has made it possible for Internet users and visitors to have access to rich, varied and unpublished content: articles on the artist’s work and his own themes, filmed recordings of the various events of the evening programme, interviews, making of the exhibition, photographs, illustrations... The information was also effectively relayed by the MONUMENTA producer sites: cnap.fr, rmngp.fr and grandpalais.fr.
MONUMENTA could not have taken place without the involvement and competences of the two public institutions of the Ministry of Culture and Communication which have
implemented the event: the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) and the Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais (Rmn – Grand Palais). The Ministry of Culture and Communication would like to thank all the sponsors and partners of the event (LVMH / Moët Hennessy . Louis Vuitton, Steelcase, Neuflize OBC, illycaffè, Pascon, Renolit, Millenium, Tolix, Phone Régie, Théâtre national de Chaillot, Universcience, DADA, CRDP de l’Académie de Versailles, Académie de Versailles – DAAC and Inspections pédagogiques, Direction des services départementaux de l'éducation nationale des Yvelines, DAAC du Rectorat de Créteil) as well as media partners (Le Monde, Metro, Comité Régional du Tourisme Paris Ile-de-France, Metrobus, France Culture, France Info, France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô).
Aurélie Filippetti, Minister of Culture and Communication, will shortly announce the name of the guest artist for the next MONUMENTA 2013. The Ministry of Culture and Communication, as part of the major contemporary art events organized at its initiative, will meet the audiences of MONUMENTA in La Triennale, which is held at the Palais de Tokyo until August 26, 2012.