Tate Modern, London
July 20-August 26, 2024
Oscar Murillo transformed the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall into his installation The flooded garden. The work’s gestural oil paint strokes flowed cyclically around the space, mirroring the curved interactive structures in the Turbine Hall. The presentation also extended into the Tate's South Tanks, where a survey of Murillo's ongoing Surge series over the years was exhibited.
The installation The flooded garden took inspiration from Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series and the garden in which he painted them. Visitors were invited to paint water and waves onto a monumental wall of canvas, creating a layered, collaborative painting of epic proportions. Ahead of the opening, Murillo collaborated with others to load blank canvases with words and sentences that reflect individual experiences and concerns. This formed the first layer of the painting, over which the public’s wave-like, gestural brushstrokes were added to create The flooded garden. Murillo often creates works which bring people together. At Tate Modern, visitors were invited to get involved in the energizing process of mark-making, creating multiple large-scale collaborative artworks inspired by Murillo’s pieces.
As part of this program, performers from around the world flooded the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall every Wednesday, along with a special, one-off performance in the South Tanks. More information about the performances can be found here.
Extending the program beyond the museum walls, these same performers came together to flood London’s green spaces in a series of free public performances across the city throughout the summer of 2024.
Learn more at Tate Modern.