The MUN invites you to explore color and pay attention to differences

The Museo Universidad de Navarra is embarking on a new phase of its project, under the artistic direction of Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, with *En vivo y en directo: color, perception, and experience*, an exhibition that opens this Wednesday and will be open to the public through February 7. The exhibition offers a journey through the different ways in which color behaves, transforms, and shapes our perception, through works by Josef Albers, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Karina Peisajovich, Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll, and Los Dalton.

Curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, artistic director of the MUN, and Nathaniel Barrett, philosopher and researcher at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra, the exhibition explores color as an active experience. Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, the exhibition’s artistic curator, proposes viewing color as a phenomenon that changes and transforms depending on light, space, and movement. And Nathaniel Barrett, the academic curator, adds that “the core of the exhibition is the experience of how colors behave.” From this perspective, the exhibition presents color as an event that evolves over time and space, and that interacts with its context and with visitors.

The exhibition, which occupies the entire -1 floor of the building designed by Rafael Moneo, offers a journey that begins with modern art’s exploration of color and extends to contemporary approaches that continue to explore its ever-changing nature. The tour begins with a seminal 20th-century work, *Interaction of Color*, by Josef Albers, a key figure in color theory, and with Carlos Cruz-Diez, whose work investigates color in light. In his work *Chromosaturation*, he takes this research to an installation consisting of three spaces illuminated in red, green, and blue, which alter the chromatic experience as the visitor moves through them. These early works demonstrate how modern art ceased to view color as a quality subordinate to form and began to consider it as an experience capable of transformation.

The exhibition continues with contemporary works by Karina Peisajovich, Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll, and the Los Dalton collective, who bring this research into the present day with works related to light, structure, and individual experience. Peisajovich explores the interaction between light-based and pigment-based color systems; Faruqee & Driscoll, with their “Interference Paintings,” use structures of concentric circles to explore optical effects of vibration and movement; and Los Dalton focus on individual differences in color perception with their work *Línea*. This is the result of a participatory art event held at the MUN on September 15, in which 30 volunteers with color blindness were invited to continue a line of color on the gallery walls, selecting—from paint samples—the shade they considered most similar to the previous section. The result highlights how the same color can be perceived differently by each person.

Thus, the works do not function as isolated creations, but rather as different approaches to the same phenomenon. The exhibition also extends to the museum’s atrium, where an interactive space invites visitors to experience some of the phenomena explored in the exhibition. This approach is expanded upon from a scientific perspective by the University of Navarra Science Museum, which will open “Color: An Explosion of Science” on October 8—an exhibition that explores color through the lens of science. Both initiatives, linked by a shared research focus, offer two complementary approaches to the phenomenon of color.

The exhibition expands the MUN Collection

The dialogue between art, philosophy, and science explored in *Live and Direct: Color, Perception, and Experience* is also reflected in the MUN Collection. To mark the exhibition, the museum has added two works to its collection that are featured in the exhibition: the silkscreen prints from *Interaction of Color* by Josef Albers, part of the original edition published by Yale University Press in 1963, and *RGB/CMY* by Karina Peisajovich. Both works expand the collection’s representation of Albers’s research within the context of modern art and its continuation in contemporary practices. Thus, from now on, the MUN’s major thematic exhibition of the year—such as the one currently on view—will contribute to the growth of the MUN Collection.

Upcoming events related to the exhibition

The exhibition is complemented by the catalog *Live and Direct: Color, Perception, and Experience*, which features essays by authors such as Tina Carita Rosenqvist, Julia J. C. Blau & James Dixon, and Richard O. Prum, as well as essays by the curators Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and Nathaniel Barrett.

In addition, inspired by this exhibition and as a result of their participation in the Museum’s performing arts residency program, *Resonancias* will premiere on October 23 and 24. This performance by Yaiza Pinillos and Olga Pericet, taking place in the exhibition galleries, translates some of the issues raised by the exhibition into the realm of movement and sound. The piece incorporates costumes and objects designed by Yaiza Pinillos in collaboration with fashion design students from the Higher Technical School of Architecture at the University of Navarra.

The program will continue in the coming months with an interdisciplinary series of lectures organized in collaboration with the Science Museum at Civivox in Iturrama for the general public. Workshops and meetings with artists, supported by the Pamplona City Council, will round out the activities surrounding the exhibition.

Live and Direct: Color, Perception, and Experience

Artists: Josef Albers, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Karina Peisajovich, Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll, and Los Dalton, a collective composed of Miguel Fructuoso, María Sánchez, and Miguel Ángel Tornero.

Curators: Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and Nathaniel Barrett

Produced by: Museo Universidad de Navarra

Dates: September 16, 2026 – February 7, 2027

Location: Rooms on Level -1

Press site: https://museo.unav.edu/prensa/en-vivo-y-en-directo-color-percepcion-y-experiencia