Purpan CHU - Toulouse
Daniel Buren

Photo-souvenir : Bayadère pour 3 couleurs et 2 bandes blanches, travail in situ permanent, passerelle hôpital Pierre-Paul Riquet / bâtiment Urgences-Réanimation-Médecines, site Purpan, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Toulouse, 2013-2015. Détail. Septembre 2015. © Daniel Buren/ADAGP, Paris. Photo : Phoebé Meyer
Patrons - Toulouse CHU Team
Mediator - Valérie Cudel, Association A demeure
Supporters - Fondation de France ; Toulouse CHU
Purpan CHU Hospital, Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France, 2015 (partial completion)

The context

Purpan Hospital has been undergoing a complete overhaul of its site for several years : opening of the Children's Hospital in 1998, the Paule de Viguier Hospital in 2003 and the Federal Institute of Biology in 2006. The arrival of the tramway at the end of 2010 brought the city to the heart of the hospital for the first time in hospital history. The construction of the Pierre Paul Riquet clinic and its extension with the Emergency-Resuscitation-Medicine building is an opportunity to commission a work from an artist. Focusing on the issue of reception, the request aims to identify flows for users (patients and carers), to signal the arrival of the tramway for the passage from the outside to the inside, and to initiate a reflection on the halls while reflecting an identity common to both buildings.

The commission

Daniel Buren's proposal focused more specifically on the patio of the URM hall with the installation of a set of three frames of different colors creating an acceleration of perspective. The atrium of the PPR for which he created five light frames allows the enhancement of this volume, initially designed as a skylight, which has been condemned. The footbridge, perceptible from both inside and outside, is requalified by the installation of translucent alternating bands of blue, yellow, red and white colours that indicate the link between the two buildings. The outer staircase of the RUM should be transformed into a sign of light by taking over the alternating bands of the footbridge (subject to completion).

Daniel Buren

French artist, born in Boulogne-Billancourt in 1938. His works question the place that welcomes them and for which they are designed, and the spectator who will be able to discover or rediscover a place through his installations. Through the work of the alternating bands, which he calls "visual tool", he reveals the significant features of the place by deploying them within specific and sometimes complex devices, between painting, sculpture and architecture.