Buren Columns

Les Deux Plateaux, popularly known as the Colonnes de Buren, is a 1986 art installation by the French conceptual artist Daniel Buren in the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais Royal in Paris. It consists of 260 black-and-white striped columns of varying heights, set out in a rigorous grid across the historical courtyard. When it was unveiled, the installation triggered one of the fiercest cultural controversies of Mitterrand-era France, with critics decrying the minimalist intervention into the classical ensemble as a sacrilege. Today it is considered a classic of contemporary public art, particularly popular with Parisian children and visitors, who climb on the columns, weave between them and toss coins into the reflecting pools below. The courtyard is freely accessible, and the impression shifts with every hour of the day and the changing light.