Daniel Buren Withdraws from Skulpture Projekte 2017 Over Tattoo Project

Daniel Buren has announced he will not participate in Skulpture Projekte 2017, the decennial exhibition in Münster, Germany, curated by Kasper König. His refusal centers on a project called Not Quite Under_Ground, the official tattoo studio of Skulpture Projekte, created by American artist Michael Smith (born 1951 in Chicago). The studio, opening June 10 to October 1, 2017, will offer tattoos designed by invited artists exclusively to people over 65, executed by professional tattoo artists. Buren declined Smith's invitation to contribute a design, citing ethical and historical objections. In a letter shared with Artribune, Buren wrote that applying a form on someone's skin provokes resistance in him. He raised hypothetical concerns: if everyone accepted tattoos as a way to build a collection, a person might later consider their body as something to preserve for future generations, even cutting off the tattooed part for museum display. Buren also referenced painful family memories: part of his family was branded in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, making the idea of marking someone's skin unbearable, even with consent. He stated that participating would mean considering Smith's concept meaningless, and though he takes it seriously, he finds it neither innocent nor amusing, nor an empty concept fitting the nature of collective exhibitions that today are often made just for the fun of making another group show.