Daniel Buren's installation piece "La Coupure" in (over, around, between) the Musée Picasso uses giant mirrors to alter the apparent spatial field around the viewer, heightening the effect of Picasso's cubist and abstract body of work. If museum-going is experiential, which I believe it is, then Buren's installation may even have overshadowed the enormous permanent collection. In the center atrium of the Hôtel Salé, which houses the museum, an enormous mirror divides the museum in half, using vertical symmetry to closely replicate the other half the building, which is apparent only by looking behind the mirror. While I wonder how many birds have met their end flying into this hundred-someodd foot tall invisible wall, it has a more subtle affect on the human eye. At times, it was perfectly apparent that there is a giant mirror doubling the visual plane. Yet at others, there was the implicit knowledge that the building was mirrored, however the affect was subtle enough to feign an actual continuous plane from one side of the building to the other.
I'm not quite sure, but I believe the colored window panels were also part of the Buren exhibition. The museum is quite well-lit, with a litany of large windows allowing natural light to enter. From the upper floors, the windows provide a spectacular view of the surrounding buildings in the Marais and the Hôtel Salé luxurious sculpture garden. The colored panels highlight the view outside, catalyzing the beautiful architecture surrounding the building in exotic and uplifting tones--green, blue, red, yellow, and pink. Combined with a beautiful day, it makes for great pictures, even between the pictures you paid 6E to see (Picasso's, that is).
Truly a photographer's delight.
