AGUASCALIENTES.- Museo Espacio (ME) at MECA is presenting Como un juego de niño, a solo exhibition by Daniel Buren, on view July 21 – October 2, 2016. Opened in February 2016, Museo Espacio is a new contemporary art museum situated in former railway workshops, in the 200-acre Macro Espacio para la Cultura y las Artes (MECA), one of the largest and most important cultural projects in México, which is restoring and renewing the railroad tradition that for over a century was fundamental to life in Aguascalientes and the region.

Como un juego de niño is an intervention into the nearly 6,000 square meters (64,600 square feet) of Museo Espacio, providing visitors a new perspective of the museum's industrial architecture. The exhibition is comprised of two parts that complement each other. Buren creates a veritable game of life-size constructions with more than 100 geometric objects arranged in the spaces. The pieces, which allude to toys from childhood, create a playful landscape of cubes, cylinders, pyramids, and arches–half painted in white, half in color–resulting in a vivid spectrum. The artist continues use of his emblematic 8.7 cm wide stripes that are discreet yet visible within the exhibition.

Throughout his career, Buren has developed a rigorous and consistent language reduced to the essentials– the usage of basic elements, simple materials, forms, colors, and his signature 8.7 cm stripes–creating works in situ that demonstrate his understanding of space and his mastery of transforming it. The artist has a longstanding connection with México, inspired by the muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera, after whom he began to make art beyond traditional contexts with interventions in public spaces and historical buildings.

Former iterations of this site-specific exhibition took place at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strassburg (MAMCS), under the title Comme un jeu d’enfant, travails in situ (June 14, 2014 – March 8, 2015) and at the Museum MADRE in Naples, under the title Come un gioco da bambini (April 25, 2015 – February 29, 2016). The varying exhibition titles follow the artist’s practice of adapting his shows to the language of the exhibiting country.

MECA is a vast cultural complex, housing the University of the Arts, National Graphic Arts Workshop (TNG), Central Library, Symphony Hall, and Museo Espacio. Aguascalientes is a national and international benchmark of economic growth, sustainable development, quality education, social welfare, and world-class cultural facilities and infrastructure.

Como un juego de niño is Museo Espacio’s second exhibition and artist commission. The museum’s inaugural exhibition Kounellis: Relampagos Sobre México featured site-specific works by Greek artist Jannis Kounellis. As a commitment to strengthening ties with the community, Museo Espacio provides tools for interpretation and invites active participation from diverse audiences. The museum offers a wide range of programming and initiatives intended to evolve based on visitor interaction, promoting learning through exposure to contemporary art and serving as a platform for social dialogue.

If in the twentieth century, the General Workshops for Construction and Repair of Machines and Rolling Stock, positioned the state as one of the most representative rail centers of Latin America, in the twenty-first century, MECA is projecting Aguascalientes as a cultural center for national and international artistic development and a hub for new creative communities.

Daniel Buren (b. 1938, France) lives and works in situ. His work, situated within the field of conceptual discourses and institutional critique, focuses on interventions in public spaces and historical buildings. Buren was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of 1986. In the same year, he created his most polemic public installation, Les deux plateaux, in the courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris. He has presented retrospectives at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. His show Excentriques was presented in 2012 at the Grand Palais as part of the cycle of Monumenta exhibitions. Most recently, in May 2016, his work L’Observatoire de la lumière, an intervention at the Fondation Louis Vuitton's building in Paris, opened and is currently on display.