ExhibitionOctober 8, 2021
Oscar Murillo. Conditions Yet Not Known
Until December 18, 2021, the exhibition "Óscar Murillo. Conditions Yet Not Known" curated by María Belén Sáez de Ibarra, at the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
The exhibition arises as a continuation of an exploration that began at the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional in 2014/2015, when María Belén Sáez de Ibarra, director of the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, invited Óscar Murillo to make 'Conditions Yet Not Known,' a work where the artist could express himself freely and expand into the wide spaces of the venue: "It was the opportunity to present my work as I feel it, without any stigma, without any speculation, the genesis of all my work where the black matter in its abstract condition is an infinite space of negative discharge, which does not use the symbolic or the figurative but black energy as the beginning and end of the possibilities of things," assures the artist.
This was the beginning of a search in which this black matter infiltrated all his exhibitions worldwide: Banku in Azerbaijan; Croatia; the 56th Venice Biennial; the 10th Berlin Biennial of Contemporary Art; the 2nd Triennial of Hangzhou, China, etc. And Murillo continues, "abstract spaces were created from this discharge, therapy spaces, with the desire that the person arrives and discharges his energy regardless of how it will be, without channeling it or assume, but leaving the audience can sustain that communication with the space created and whose relationship is intimate."
Today, the black matter returns with the same title and inquiry but is more planned from the aesthetic and conceptual point of view. The artist's experiences even deepen in La Paila during the first months of the pandemic.
The work proposes a journey that begins in the courtyard of the Museum of Art with the installation of more than 40 benches from the nineteenth century, from Catholic churches that were excommunicated and collected in warehouses in Holland. Then the black canvases begin to appear, they have been since their origin the core of 'Conditions Yet Not Known' they are large canvases painted on both sides with black oil and whose paint was fixed through the heat of irons that left traces, marks, textures, these canvases today have multiplied. Their scars have been attenuated according to the running trajectory. The history developed, they are mostly gathered in the Main Hall where they converge with guts stuffed with popular T-shirts used by the working class, also loaded with cotton. The guts represent human bodies and their stomachs: sucking, stealing, spitting, and from which corn and clay rocks burned in industrial ovens are also expelled.
Upon entering the Main Hall, a small TV set shows the performative action 'Collective Conscience' carried out during the National Strike in Colombia during the second quarter of 2021; in which we witness the massive burning of his Mateos, those cloth dolls that represented the working class and were part of his work presented at the Turner Prize.
During the tour, we observe the video 'meet me! mr superman' projected from floor to ceiling, where the community of La Paila is presented during the New Year's celebrations.
Room 2 exhibits 'Frequencies', a project conceived in 2013 in a school in La Paila and that today has grown to become a global project where around 60,000 children from schools in more than 30 countries have participated. In each of them, Murillo installed blank canvases on their desks for several months so that they could be freely intervened. Over time, these were filled with shapes, marks, and phrases, reconfirming drawing as a tool for communication and direct and pure expression, regardless of these schools' geographic, social, cultural, and economic differences.
On leaving, trenches appear in the soft courtyard, similar to those exhibited at the 13th Sharjah Biennial, where Oscar Murillo took over the Bait Al Serkal building courtyard.
Link to visit the museum
The exhibition arises as a continuation of an exploration that began at the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional in 2014/2015, when María Belén Sáez de Ibarra, director of the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, invited Óscar Murillo to make 'Conditions Yet Not Known,' a work where the artist could express himself freely and expand into the wide spaces of the venue: "It was the opportunity to present my work as I feel it, without any stigma, without any speculation, the genesis of all my work where the black matter in its abstract condition is an infinite space of negative discharge, which does not use the symbolic or the figurative but black energy as the beginning and end of the possibilities of things," assures the artist.
This was the beginning of a search in which this black matter infiltrated all his exhibitions worldwide: Banku in Azerbaijan; Croatia; the 56th Venice Biennial; the 10th Berlin Biennial of Contemporary Art; the 2nd Triennial of Hangzhou, China, etc. And Murillo continues, "abstract spaces were created from this discharge, therapy spaces, with the desire that the person arrives and discharges his energy regardless of how it will be, without channeling it or assume, but leaving the audience can sustain that communication with the space created and whose relationship is intimate."
Today, the black matter returns with the same title and inquiry but is more planned from the aesthetic and conceptual point of view. The artist's experiences even deepen in La Paila during the first months of the pandemic.
The work proposes a journey that begins in the courtyard of the Museum of Art with the installation of more than 40 benches from the nineteenth century, from Catholic churches that were excommunicated and collected in warehouses in Holland. Then the black canvases begin to appear, they have been since their origin the core of 'Conditions Yet Not Known' they are large canvases painted on both sides with black oil and whose paint was fixed through the heat of irons that left traces, marks, textures, these canvases today have multiplied. Their scars have been attenuated according to the running trajectory. The history developed, they are mostly gathered in the Main Hall where they converge with guts stuffed with popular T-shirts used by the working class, also loaded with cotton. The guts represent human bodies and their stomachs: sucking, stealing, spitting, and from which corn and clay rocks burned in industrial ovens are also expelled.
Upon entering the Main Hall, a small TV set shows the performative action 'Collective Conscience' carried out during the National Strike in Colombia during the second quarter of 2021; in which we witness the massive burning of his Mateos, those cloth dolls that represented the working class and were part of his work presented at the Turner Prize.
During the tour, we observe the video 'meet me! mr superman' projected from floor to ceiling, where the community of La Paila is presented during the New Year's celebrations.
Room 2 exhibits 'Frequencies', a project conceived in 2013 in a school in La Paila and that today has grown to become a global project where around 60,000 children from schools in more than 30 countries have participated. In each of them, Murillo installed blank canvases on their desks for several months so that they could be freely intervened. Over time, these were filled with shapes, marks, and phrases, reconfirming drawing as a tool for communication and direct and pure expression, regardless of these schools' geographic, social, cultural, and economic differences.
On leaving, trenches appear in the soft courtyard, similar to those exhibited at the 13th Sharjah Biennial, where Oscar Murillo took over the Bait Al Serkal building courtyard.
Link to visit the museum
