Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Spaces, a digital publication exploring new ways to live and work.
CNN
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French artist Daniel Buren has turned the Fondation Louis Vuitton into a giant kaleidoscope for his latest installation, Observatory of Light.
The 3,600 sheets of glass that make up the outer sails of the 2014 building – designed by Frank Gehry – now have an extra colorful coating, which filters the light entering and bouncing off the structure.
Reflections inside the space will change in form depending on the time of day and the season.
Bernard Arnault, president of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, described the Observatory of light as “a real dialogue with Frank Gehry and his building.”
© Iwan Baan for Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2014
Fondation Louis Vuitton -- the philanthropic wing of luxury conglomerate LVMH -- has opened a new contemporary art museum in Paris, designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.
© Iwan Baan for Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2014
Gehry was inspired by glass garden architecture from the late 19th-century. The building has already been nicknamed "the glass bird" and "the iceberg."
© Iwan Baan for Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2014
From inside the museum, visitors can look out onto a modern fountain as well as the surrounding Bois de Boulogne, the second largest park in Paris.
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The unusual shape of Fondation Louis Vuitton recalls Gehry's other seminal works, like the Guggenheim Art Museum Bilbao, which he completed in 1997.
© Ellsworth Kelly/Fondation Louis Vuitton/Marc Domage
The building also has a 350-seat auditorium for live shows, including a series of retrospective concerts from electronic band Kraftwerk this November.
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LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, first met with Gehry to plan the commission in 2001.
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Fondation Louis Vuitton's first temporary exhibition will feature a group of commissions inspired by the building's architecture.
© 2014 Olafur Eliasson/Iwan Baan
Other works on display include Inside the Horizon, a specially commissioned piece by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, who is known for creatively incorporating light into his installations.
© Olafur Eliasson/Iwan Baan
Mann im Matsch (Man in the Mud), a large installation from Thomas Schütte, is part of the museum's permanent collection.
© Cerith Wyn Evans/Fondation Louis Vuitton Marc Domage
Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans also contributed a commissioned work.
© Ellsworth Kelly/Fondation Louis Vuitton Marc Domage
Ellsworth Kelly also created a location-specific piece for the Fondation. Spectrum VIII, a stage curtain, was created from one of his previous works.
© Oliver Beer/Fondation Louis Vuitton/Florence Joubert
On the performance art side, Oliver Beer's Composition For a New Museum has three people singing in different corners of a room to demonstrate the building's acoustics.
‘[Buren’s] work responds magnificently to the architecture, in line with his approach, going back to the 1970s, that sees a coming together of colors, transparency and light,’ he added.
From 28 May, children’s workshops will run alongside the installation, aiming to engage them with color, light and opacity.
In early June, there will also be three performances of 3 times a Hut, a theatrical experience Buren created in collaboration with circus stars Dan and Fabien Demuynck.
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