SKIN

The catalog “SKIN – MEMBRANE, ORGAN, ARCHIVE” accompanies the exhibition of the same name by Frauenmuseum Berlin e.V. in cooperation with alpha nova & galerie futura, curated by Julie August and Katharina Koch at ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art. The artists engage with the topic of skin via video, audio, photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, collage, installation, and performances. Juxtaposed with the theme is the historically patriarchal exhibition venue – the Spandau Citadel. The exhibition confronts the male-dominated site with feminist counter-narratives through the thematic complexity of skin, which makes visible the interconnectedness of sexism, racism, classism, ageism, and ableism; bears witness to individual and collective archival practices; and as a simultaneously sensual, resistant, and vulnerable organ becomes the starting point of artistic analysis.

The works are grouped according to three main topics, which are bundled under the terms MEMBRANE, ORGAN, and ARCHIVE. However, these are not to be understood as static attributes, but rather as associative thematic fields that lightly structure the exhibition, which are porous and entangled with one another. MEMBRANE: These works deal with skin as protection and a projection surface, as well as its social implications. ORGAN: Works in this section deal with skin as an organ of perception in the sense of touch, erotics, disgust, vulnerability, and stigmatization, as well as their materialities. ARCHIVE: Works that take into consideration the skin as a repository of knowledge and a space where experiences are inscribed. An emblematic work in the exhibition, which unites all of the three terms, is the installation Becoming by Yishay Garbasz.

Further information can be found at ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art, Zitadelle (Duration: 10.2.–7.5.2023), Frauenmuseum Berlin e.V. and alpha nova & galerie futura. Press releases (PM_HAUT-kurz,PM_HAUT-lang) for exhibition and catalog by ARTEFAKT Kulturkonzepte. Accompanying the exhibition will be a catalog presentation and panel discussion, performances, guided tours by curators as well as artists, and film screenings (HAUT_Events).

Authorship:

Julie August, Tina Bara, Mehtap Baydu, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Edna Bonhomme, Anna Bromley, Yvon Chabrowski, Juan Domínguez, Alba D’Urbano, Manja Ebert, Yishay Garbasz, Ina Geißler, Andrea Golla, Harriet Groß, Christina Irrgang, Isabel Kerkermeier, Marie Hanna Klemm, Katharina Koch, Rachel Kohn, Verena Kyselka, Verónica Lehner, Julia Lübbecke, Arantxa Martínez, Loredana Nemes, Dorothea Nold, Barbara Oettl, Margherita Pevere, Regine Rapp, Sylvia Sadzinski, Moran Sanderovich, Franziska Schaum, Juli Schmidt, Zuzanna Schmukalla, Moran Shavit, Zuzanna Skiba, Anja Sonnenburg, Marianne Stoll, Ivonne Thein, Sophie Utikal, Gisela Weimann, Maria Wollny, Hyejeong Yoo and femBlack Performance Collective