SKIN IN THE GAME presents seminal prototypes from the personal archives of internationally acclaimed artists, dating back to the 1970s and crossing over into the present. The exhibits include experiments never previously shown, from paintings to sculptures, to banners, video performances, photographs, collages, drawings, books, and concept notes. The works focus on that moment of professional and existential emancipation when these artists threw their skin in the game, and gave their all to art. These prototypes become the generative organs of an ongoing body of work, a series of unfinished inquiries that return, and are explored, at different moments throughout a lifetime. Ruth Buchanan, Otobong Nkanga, Collier Schorr, and Joëlle Tuerlinckx are complimenting early prototypes with new productions for this exhibition. A choreography devised in collaboration with Joëlle Tuerlinckx takes over remnants of the previous exhibition at KW on the 3^rd floor, exploring not only the constructive dialogue between artists and their works but also conditions of “neighborly dislike”.

The Public Program NERVES, BREATH, MUSCLES, BLOOD implements exercises and methods of the Metabolic Museum–University (MM–U), developed by Clémentine Deliss at different locations since 2015 (The Metabolic Museum, Hatje Cantz/KW, 2020). MM–U is a curatorial platform that experiments with existing collections as prototypes for open-ended inquiry and transdisciplinary exercises. The program will take place both within the exhibition and online through www.mm-u.online (to be launched in October). The publication, SKIN IN THE GAME. Conversations with Artists on Risk and Contention (Hatje Cantz/KW) will be launched in November 2023.

Curator: Clémentine Deliss
Curatorial Assistant: Nikolas Brummer
Exhibition Choreography: Joëlle Tuerlinckx and Clémentine Deliss
Metabolic Chairs: Character Design, Diane Hillebrand with Francesca-Romana Audretsch, Janina Capelle, Lizzy Ellbrück, Teresa Häußler, Cécile Kobel, Christina Scheib, MM-U 2018-19
Metabolic Museum­–University Program: Christina Scheib
Website Design and Programming: Rana Karan & Cécile Kobel/ Happyserver

KW Studio about the exhibition SKIN IN THE GAME with curator Clémentine Deliss. Production: LOCOLOR, Realisation: Gregor Kuhlmann, Assistent: Martin Behrndt, Kamera: Gregor Kuhlmann & Toni Do, Sound: Lia Valero, Editing & Color Grading: Lia Valero A production by KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2023.