On this page you can learn more about the exhibition.

Below you will find questions to think about in the exhibition.

KW Institute for Contemporary Art is a place in Berlin where artists, institutions, and people come together to share ideas, discuss social and political issues, and experience art. We have exhibition halls, apartments, offices, event spaces, and a café, and work with partners around the world.

SKIN IN THE GAME means to take a risk in life.

The exhibition SKIN IN THE GAME shows prototypes from artists who are famous in many countries. The artists who created the work in the exhibition are Ruth Buchanan, Otobong Nkanga, Collier Schorr, Rosemarie Trockel, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, and Andrea Zittel.

Many of the artworks and documents come from the artists’ personal collections, starting from the 1980s up to now. You can see experiments that no one has seen before, like paintings, sculptures, banners, videos, photos, collages, drawings, books, and notes. These artists focus on a moment when they risked everything for art.

The experiments that they made are like the beginnings of larger works. The artists keep coming back to them and exploring them. The artist will work on the piece again and again.

The artists have made new artworks for this exhibition. The exhibition design was created by Joëlle Tuerlinckx and Clémentine Deliss. It uses parts from a previous exhibition that was on the 3^rd floor of KW, like walls and wood pieces. It looks at how artists and their works talk to each other and also how the artworks can sometimes not get along.

The public program of the exhibition is called NERVES, BREATH, MUSCLES, BLOOD and will only be available at www.mm-u.online. It is part of the Metabolic Museum–University.

The exhibition uses old collections as examples for trying out new ideas. The focus is on looking at objects and inventing new stories. The program starts in September as an exhibition and online from October 11, 2023, at www.mm-u.online.

A book about the program will come out in November 2023. The book is called SKIN IN THE GAME. Conversations with Artists on Risk and Contention by Hatje Cantz and KW.

The special chairs in the exhibition were designed by: Diane Hillebrand with Francesca-Romana Audretsch, Janina Capelle, Lizzy Ellbrück, Teresa Häußler, Cécile Kobel, Christina Scheib, MM-U 2018-19

Metabolic Museum–University Program @mm-u.online: Christina Scheib mit Ollie George, Jakob Karpus, Felipe Meres, Joana Owona, Toby Üpson, Edi Winarni, Winnie Zhu

Website Design and Programming: Rana Karan & Cécile Kobel/ Happyserver

You can use these questions as inspiration to engage with the works of SKIN IN THE GAME.

– How do you understand the name of the exhibition SKIN IN THE GAME ? What associations do you have with it?

– Do you find connections between individual works? In which way?

– This exhibition space invites the audience to interact with it. What kind of activities can you do here that are not usual for a museum or a gallery?

– What do you imagine when you think of a prototype?

Have fun!