Oscar Murillo: Collective Osmosis at DAS MINSK Kunsthaus

An Exchange of Vision

The Colombian-born artist Oscar Murillo has reimagined the architectural boundaries of DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, converting both interior and exterior areas into an experimental platform for communal exchange. Visitors are invited to contribute to expansive canvases through an open-air collective painting process, while works by Murillo and Claude Monet occupy spaces across two venues—the Kunsthaus and Museum Barberini—marking the inaugural collaborative venture between these Hasso Plattner Foundation institutions.

Seeing and Not-Seeing

Titled Collective Osmosis, the exhibition continues through August 9, 2026, establishing a conversation between Murillo's abstract compositions, participatory interventions, and Monet's Impressionist canvases. The dialogue originates from Murillo's investigation into the French master's biography and reception. Monet's later cataracts and subsequent eye surgery dramatically altered his chromatic and compositional approach. Murillo interprets this perceptual transformation as both metaphor for societal blind spots and catalyst for envisioning alternative realities. The show examines how visibility and invisibility carry political weight, proposing darkness as speculative terrain for re-reading Impressionism.

The Science of Exchange

The exhibition's title references osmosis—the scientific process where water molecules traverse semi-permeable membranes seeking equilibrium. Murillo employs this biological principle to articulate his vision of human equality and universal community. The concept also manifests architecturally: creating permeability between museum interiors and urban exteriors, between institutional walls and public space, and between Potsdam and global networks.

Participatory Gestures

Through its collaborative framework, Collective Osmosis foregrounds individual creative potential via brush, hand, or pen. For Murillo, artistic mark-making represents communication and freedom. A substantial canvas positioned on DAS MINSK's terrace welcomes visitor contributions throughout the exhibition's duration. These works emerge from a nationwide social mapping initiative spanning Germany, where collective drawing sessions convene in public spaces across various regions. Completed canvases return to DAS MINSK for display within the exhibition context.

Prior to the main show, Murillo's ongoing Frequencies project occupied six educational institutions in Potsdam, Jüterbog, and Wittstock. This intervention adds to an expanding archive documenting student perspectives worldwide, captured on canvases affixed to classroom desks over six-month periods.

Audio Documentation

The accompanying podcast Perpetual Blue—From Claude Monet to Oscar Murillo traces connections between these artistic practices as Murillo's abstractions share gallery walls with Monet's water lilies, grainstacks, and Houses of Parliament at both venues. Writer Kate Brown facilitates conversations with Murillo, DAS MINSK director Anna Schneider, Haus der Kulturen der Welt director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, and art historian Evie Hatch, interrogating what paintings, pigments, and marks convey—and what institutional porosity might mean.

The podcast is available across major platforms and via dasminsk.de.

Curatorial Framework

Exhibition curators Anna Schneider and Daniel Milnes have produced a comprehensive catalogue featuring contributions from Milnes, Ndikung, Richard Shiff, Ortrud Westheider, and a dialogue between Murillo and Schneider.