Du Travail in situ 1976 au Travail situé 2020: Triptyque (1976-2020) materialises the main lines of thought and the evolution of the work of Daniel Buren, who has questioned the notions of authorship and the institutional and procedural conventions of art making since the 1960s. Seeking to strip his works of meaning or references, the artist began to systematically use an industrial fabric with 8.7 cm-wide fixed vertical stripes alternating white with another colour. Perceived as a “visual tool”, the striped canvases symbolised the renunciation of the pictorial gesture and constituted a simple and banal visual register. The aim was to achieve a “zero degree of painting”, an intention reinforced by the absence of frames and the unconventional presentation of these works, which were often placed on the floor, somewhere between painting, sculpture and installation.

Interested in transferring the viewer's attention from the work to the physical and social environment in which the artist intervenes, from the late 1960s Buren began to favour site-specific interventions, first in the street, then in the gallery, museum, landscape or in architectural structures. Within this creative cycle, the artist would conceive works in situ and works situated, the principles of which can be found in the conceptual evolution of Du Travail in situ 1976 au Travail situé 2020: Triptyque. As a work in situ, this triptych was closely linked to the original site for which it was conceived in 1976, reflecting Buren's questions about the independence of the work of art: the work exists only in a certain space, and cannot be moved or placed anywhere without losing its original meaning. The transposition of the work as a situated work in 2020 has given it the possibility of being presented in different places, as long as the principles established by the artist are respected. Although they are inseparable from a particular environment, situated works can be adapted to a multitude of different situations: the piece changes with each presentation, just as it transforms the place in which it is exhibited.