Krijn de Koning Transforms Nantes Museum Patio with White Walls

Dutch artist Krijn de Koning (born 1963 in Amsterdam) has radically altered the covered patio of the Musée des beaux-arts in Nantes from July 1 to September 25, 2011. He erected twelve-meter-high, one-meter-wide white walls that nearly reach the glass roof, duplicating the arcade openings on the ground and upper floors. The installation includes vast passages and three small empty rooms with varied openings. For the first time, de Koning abandoned color, letting white dominate. Visitors can create their own path on the ground floor, physically experiencing spatial divisions, while from above they overlook the patio, gradually revealing the structure and offering views of the museum's paintings. De Koning, who admires Mondrian and Van Doesburg's anti-decorative approach, aimed to "kill space" and demonstrate that "our reality is a construction" that can be changed. The exhibition also features his photographs of "anti-architectures" and a selection of Piranesi engravings from the Cacault collection, which he correlates with his own research, opening up an imaginary museum of ruins and vedute.