THE MUSEUM AS A POROUS MEMBRANE: OSCAR MURILLO AT MINSK

Becoming creative and sharing experiences: Oscar Murillo’s current exhibition at Minsk in Potsdam is no conventional art show. Born in Colombia in 1986, Murillo became a darling of the art market in his early twenties. Today, the Turner Prize-winning artist is less interested in setting records in auction houses and arts pages than in engaging people through his participatory approach to painting. His infectious openness can be experienced at Minsk Potsdam until 09.08.2026. Titled Collective Osmosis, the exhibition takes its name from a scientific concept describing the movement of liquid through a membrane to achieve equilibrium. Murillo uses the term as a metaphor for what art can accomplish at its best, softening the boundaries between inside and outside, between institution and city, and between people themselves. Murillo’s new abstract paintings from the series Surge, Scarred Spirits, and Disrupted Frequencies enter into an unexpected dialogue with French Impressionist Claude Monet. In later life, Monet suffered from severe cataracts that cost him around ninety percent of his eyesight. Murillo interprets both the illness and the transformations in Monet’s late work as symbols of society’s blind spots. In Potsdam, he poses the question of how these might be overcome collectively today.

And not only at Minsk, but also across the Havel at the Museum Barberini. The exchange extends beyond institutional and physical boundaries. For the exhibition, Murillo has created new paintings that are shown at both venues, while key works by Claude Monet are on view at Minsk for the very first time. On 04.07, visitors can join a special Murillo Meets Monet tour linking the two locations. The best part? The exhibition aims to exist beyond theory and philosophical discourse. Participation is not only welcomed but encouraged. Every day except Tuesday, visitors can pick up a brush during the free Collective Painting sessions on Minsk’s terrace and become part of an ever-growing communal artwork. As part of Murillo’s Social Mapping project, canvases were sent to institutions across Germany, inviting people to contribute their own drawings and marks. These canvases have now returned to the exhibition, carrying traces of their journeys and the people who engaged with them. Art is conceived as a cycle rather than a one-way street. Those who visit on the last Sunday of the month can take advantage of Minskday and enjoy free admission to the museum. And every Saturday, fresh pizza is served by Brenda, the oven sculpture created by artist Gabriel Chaile, while Cafébar Hedwig welcomes guests with a new culinary concept. It all feels perfectly in tune with the exhibition’s ethos: gathering, eating, talking. In Murillo’s world, exchange happens on every level.

Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Clemens Poloczek, Linus Müllerschön

Das Minsk, Max-Planck-Str.17, 14473 Potsdam; map
Oscar Murillo – Collective Osmosis until 09.08.2026

@dasminsk
@museumbarberini
@lacachepli

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Culture, Medienpartnerschaft

WHERE COLORS & FILMS FLICKER: PAUL SIGNAC & THE BARBERINI SUMMER CINEMA

At first, there are only dots. Seen from a distance, they turn into light, which becomes sky and water, and eventually an entire landscape. At the Museum Barberini, the Symphony of Colour. Paul Signac and Neo-Impressionism exhibition (04.07.–11.10.2026) is dedicated to an artist who not only painted, but envisioned ideas for a more harmonious society. Together with Georges Seurat, Signac developed a technique at the end of the 19th century in which colors weren’t mixed on the palette, but on the canvas and in the viewer’s eye. Today it sounds contemporary, at the time, it was a radical attempt to connect perception, science, and art. The exhibition traces Signac’s journey from early landscapes to portraits and his famous depictions of the Côte d’Azur, where light seems to almost seep through the canvas. Along the way, visitors encounter not only him, but an entire generation of artists who experimented with color and sought new ways of seeing the world. More than 90 works can be discovered at the Museum Barberini on Alter Markt, including pieces by Henri-Edmond Cross, Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, and Théo van Rysselberghe. In August, this light moves into the courtyard, filling an even larger screen. During the Barberini Summer Cinema, French classics are shown under the open sky on three Thursdays. Popcorn, DJ sounds, and pre-screening talks moderated by Knut Elstermann and Gesa Ufer set the tone. The program includes Jacques Tati’s delightfully idiosyncratic Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (06.08.), Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Mépris (13.08.), and La Piscine starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider (20.08.). The perfect August day? First walk through the exhibition, then sit in the courtyard and travel to the French coast as dusk falls.

Text: Emma Zylla / Credits: Paul Signac, Segel und Pinien, 1886, Private Collection; Maximilien Luce: Der Hafen von Saint-Tropez, 1893, Private Collection; Photo: Helge Mundt

Museum Barberini, Humboldtstr.5–6, 14467 Potsdam; map
Symphony of Colors. Paul Signac and Neo-Impressionism 04.07.–11.10.2026
Barberini Summer Cinema 06., 13. & 20.08.2026

@museumbarberini

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Culture

A BIRD THAT CANNOT LAND: KYIV BIENNIAL AT THE KW

The Kyiv Biennial is a nomadic project. Since its founding, it has linked art, politics, and social questions across national borders. In recent years, traveling between locations such as Kyiv, Warsaw, Linz, Antwerp, and Berlin has increasingly become part of its working reality. With A Bird That Cannot Land, the biennial now moves into KW and occupies the entire building with exhibitions, concerts, performances, and talks. A bird that cannot land remains suspended in the air. Exile appears as a state of suspension, exhaustion, and persistence. The exhibition follows the experiences of people whose lives are shaped by war, migration, and political upheaval. Its starting point is the idea of a “Middle-East-Europe” — a broad region between post-Soviet Eastern Europe, Central and Southwest Asia, and the Mediterranean. Historical connections, colonial violence, imperialism, and ongoing wars cut across national borders and continue to shape the present. On the ground floor, the gaze is directed upwards. In times of war, meanings shift. Where the sky once symbolized hope and freedom, it becomes a site of threat through missiles, drones, and surveillance. On the first floor, Hito Steyerl’s large-scale installation examines the history of the Nord Stream pipelines. Massive pipes coil through the space as sculptural furniture, interwoven with documentary films, archival material, and a timeline tracing the political, economic, and ecological entanglements of the pipeline. One floor above, several works engage with archives and the question of how history is constructed.

Fabric panels peel away from the walls and extend through the space. Documents are added to, shifted, and rearranged. The floor proposes history as something that is never fully written. On the top level, things begin to fall apart. The works dissolve, asking what remains after destruction, how relationships persist through absence, and what role poetry can play in this process — forming an intimate register of repair and care. Sound connects the different layers of the biennial. The accompanying live program in July 2026 brings together musicians, artists, and thinkers from various regions. Listening sessions, concerts, and performances expand the exhibition through voices, narratives, and musical traditions that move across borders. At a time when national interests are growing louder everywhere, the Kyiv Biennial insists on international connections. This is where its urgency lies.

Text: Inga Krumme / Credits: Lida Abdul, In Transit, video still, 2008 © Lida Abdul / Courtesy Giorgio Persano Gallery; Aykan Safoğlu, 1991, 2026. Courtesy der Künstler. Installationsansicht der Ausstellung Kyiv Biennial – A Bird That Cannot Land in den KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2026, Foto: Frank Sperling; Oleksiy Radynski, Where Russia Ends, 2024. Courtesy der Künstler (links) und Hito Steyerl, Leak, 2024. Courtesy die Künstlerin, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York und Esther Schipper, Berlin/ Paris/Seoul (rechts). Installationsansicht der Ausstellung Kyiv Biennial – A Bird That Cannot Land in den KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2026 / Photos: Frank Sperling

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststr.69, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map

Kyiv Biennial – A Bird That Cannot Land 11.06.–13.09.2026

@kwinstituteforcontemporaryart

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FILLING THE SPACE BETWEEN WORDS: HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY, GOETHE-INSTITUT!

It’s never been easier to misunderstand one another, even though apps now translate in real time and keep conversations flowing, word for word. We live in an age in which artificial intelligence drills vocabulary, internalizes grammar rules, and translates sentences from one language into another in fractions of a second, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And perhaps it soon will be. But language is more than the exchange of information. It’s gestures, hesitation, a wrong word that somehow still makes sense. It’s laughing at your own accent, searching for words, and the quiet understanding that, despite all this, or perhaps because of it, you still have something to say to one another. Because what does it really mean to understand someone? That is a question no app can answer. It’s something we have to talk about together, and we can at the Goethe-Institut’s anniversary celebration on Saturday (20.06.2026).

Many people know the Goethe-Institut as a first point of contact for learning German, whether in Germany or abroad. For 75 years, the institute has been building bridges between languages, people, and cultures. Today, the Berlin branch in Mitte is more than a language school. It’s a place that engages with social debates and takes encounters seriously. This Saturday, the team is opening its doors for a festival under the motto “We Celebrate Language!” The festival celebrates multilingualism, stories of migration, and cultural diversity, not as buzzwords, but as topics for conversation in workshops, panel discussions, and theater formats. Among those taking part in the discussions are writers Yōko Tawada and Olga Grjasnowa, the latter known for her wonderful novel “Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt” (All Russians Love Birch Trees). And artificial intelligence is part of the program, too. The team will show what language learning can look like today with AI and VR experiences. Snacks will be provided by Narenj Persian Street Food, Cuore di Vetro, and Kroque Berlin.

Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Bernd Schönberger

Goethe-Institut Berlin, Neue Schönhauser Str. 20, 10178 Berlin–Mitte; map
“Wir feiern Sprache!”, 27.06.2026 13–21h, admission is free.

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FREEDOM, DIALOGUE & EXCHANGE: THREE EVENINGS WITH SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS AT THE HAUS DER BERLINER FESTSPIELE

In 1812, Beethoven wrote about freedom — how it cannot be fulfilled simply, but instead gets caught between aspiration and reality. This tension forms the starting point for “Beethoven 7”, one of three evenings with Sasha Waltz & Guests at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The program presents different forms of choreographic and musical encounter: “Beethoven 7” engages with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, “In C,” based on Terry Riley’s work, explores the relationship between individual freedom and society, and a “Dialoge” evening marking the 75th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut brings together dance and music as forms of exchange and connection. In 1993, Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig founded the Sasha Waltz & Guests company in Berlin. Since then, Sasha Waltz has continually reinvented herself as a choreographer and, together with her company, has developed new forms of dance, music, and interdisciplinary collaboration. In 2Beethoven 7″, Sasha Waltz works with 14 dancers to explore Ludwig van Beethoven’s complete Seventh Symphony. Composed in 1812, the music carries the tensions of its time: between revolutionary upheaval, restoration, and the loss of freedom. Beethoven’s score is complemented by “Freiheit/Extasis” by Diego Noguera, an electronic composition.

“In C” is based on Terry Riley’s 1964 score. It consists of 53 musical phrases, from which Sasha Waltz creates 53 movement figures. Here, too, freedom is explored. The dance is based on structured improvisation with clear rules. Within these rules, dancers have individual creative scope, moving in a constant interplay between personal freedom and group dynamics. Music by The Young Gods is created live in direct exchange with the dancers, giving the evening its pulsing framework.

The “Dialoge” evening brings together dance and music with Sasha Waltz & Guests and Ensemble Musikfabrik. Both work in the same space, without a fixed separation between music and movement. Much of what emerges comes from their direct response to one another. Across the three evenings, different forms of structure, freedom, exchange, and connection come into play. And with them, the question of how to dance one’s way through it all.

Text: Emma Zylla / Photos: Sebastian Bolesch, Jo Glinka, Reiner Pfisterer

Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Schaperstr.24, 10719 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map

Beethoven 7, 18.–20.06.2026 20–21h45h, 21.06.2026 18–19h45

75 Jahre Goethe-Institut, 26.06.2026 20–21h15

In C, 27.06.2026 20–21h, 28.06.2026 18–19h

Find tickets here.

@sashawaltzandguests
@berlinerfestspiele
@theyounggodsmusic
@ensemble_musikfabrik
@goetheinstitut

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