Les Deux Plateaux, Installation artwork and fountain in Palais Royal courtyard, Paris, France.

Les Deux Plateaux is an artwork comprising 260 black and white striped marble columns arranged in a grid across different ground levels in the Palais Royal courtyard. The columns vary in height and are partly surrounded by underground water basins visible through metal gratings.

In 1983 the Culture Ministry, under Jack Lang, commissioned a work for the Cour d'Honneur to end its use as a car park. Three models were shown to François Mitterrand in July 1985 and he chose Daniel Buren's, built with architect Patrick Bouchain from December 1985 and completed in 1986. The Commission des Monuments Historiques opposed it on 14 October 1985; Lang overrode the objection.

The columns vary in height, inviting visitors to move through the space in different ways while engaging with the classical architecture surrounding the courtyard. This arrangement creates a conversation between contemporary art and the traditional French aesthetic of the palace.

The courtyard is open to pedestrians at all hours and free to enter. The columns stand at three heights between 8.7 and 62 cm, so watch your step rather than looking only at the stripes. Some cylinders continue below courtyard level into water basins covered by metal gratings.

Visitors often toss coins through metal gratings into the hidden water basins, a gesture reminiscent of traditional fountain rituals despite this being contemporary art. This everyday act reveals how people unconsciously ascribe ritual meaning to modern artworks.