Metabolic Museum‑University (MM‑U)
The Metabolic Museum-University (MM-U) is a curatorial platform devised by Dr. Clémentine Deliss that operates both online and through physical encounters. Its research centers around the creative and critical reassessment of dormant, unresolved, and sometimes contentious historical collections. Assemblages of artefacts and artworks from different disciplines, cultural histories and timeframes form the basis of live group discussions and experimental analyses. These Debating Chambers take place physically within existing exhibitions or museum displays, lasting approximately three hours, and seeking to animate extended observation, visual thinking, and social dialogue. By converging the museum and the university, the MM-U highlights the civic responsibility of the museum to provide education for future generations through a reexamination of diverse and often ignored collections. Visitors to the museum are by extension students, scholars, and researchers. The motto of the MM-U is “To enter a museum, no exam is necessary.”
The conceptual groundwork for the MM-U was carried out in Frankfurt at the Weltkulturen Museum between 2010-2015 (see “The Metabolic Museum” published by Hatje Cantz/KW 2020). Subsequently, the MM-U’s first iteration took place at the Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv in 2015 under the title “School of Remediation”. This was followed by student projects at the Karlsruhe University of Art and Design leading up to the MM-U’s participation in the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana in 2019. Between 2020-23, the MM-U was based at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, culminating in the production of the website and the exhibition “Skin in the Game”. In 2023/24, the MM-U is located at the University of Art in Kassel, where investigations into the city’s collections are being carried out by art and theory students. From 2024, the MM-U’s headquarters are located both in Berlin and at KANAL Centre Pompidou in Brussels. The format for this future collaboration is in its research and development phase.
Available to all visitors is the multi-media reportage of past MM-U manifestations, the Library of published texts, and information and video documentation of the Debating Chambers held to date. Members of the MM-U enter with a login-in and are provided with a Bureau d’Esprit studio space, and access to the Reservoir of visual materials gathered from museum and university collections around the world.
MM-U Founding Director: Dr. Clémentine Deliss. For Biography, List of Publications, and full CV go here
MM-U Faculty 2020, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin: BLESS, Matthias Bruhn, Krist Gruijthuijsen, Iman Issa, Augustin Maurs, Tom McCarthy, Margareta von Oswald, Henrike Naumann, Azu Nwagbogu, Manuel Raeder, Elhadj Abdoulaye Sène
MM-U Faculty 2023 KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin: Ollie George, Jakob Karpus, Felipe Meres, Joana Atemengue Owona, Christina Scheib, Edi D. Winarni, Winnie Zhu
MM-U Faculty 2024 KANAL-Centre Pompidou, Brussels: Jeremy Tshiyembi Kayoka, Joana Atemengue Owona, Edi D. Winarni
The Enquiring Eye (2024)
The Enquiring Eye is a teaching program aimed at students in fine art, curating, fashion, design, architecture, and visual communication. It responds to the archival and decolonial turn in the arts (Read more)
Nerves, Breath, Muscles, Blood (2023)
NERVES, BREATH, MUSCLES, BLOOD is the series of four Debating Chambers that took place online as the public program for the exhibition SKIN IN THE GAME between October-December 2023. All Debating C (Read more)
Skin in the Game (2023)
SKIN IN THE GAME presents seminal prototypes from the personal archives of six acclaimed artists, dating back to the nineteen-seventies and crossing over into the present. These include experiments (Read more)
Debating Chamber on Prototypes and Ominous Objects (2021–22)
The Debating Chamber on Prototypes and Ominous Objects was a three-hour session held on November 16, 2021 on the fourth floor of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. It took place while pan (Read more)
Proceedings of the Metabolic Museum-University (2020–21)
Between November 2020 and May 2021, during the height of the Covid 19 pandemic, the faculty of the MM-U met every three weeks online in the Bureau d’Esprit. This ‘office of the mindR (Read more)
Institute for Concept Work (2020)
In 2019, I was invited by Krist Gruijthuijsen, Director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin to become an Associate Curator starting in June 2020. This was the second time I engaged with (Read more)
Eyeday, Tongueday, Brainday, Skinday, Lungday, Liverday, Heartday (2019)
In 2019, the MM-U, which at the time was located at the University of Art and Design, Karlsruhe (HfG), was invited by Slavs and Tatars to provide the educational program of the 33rd Biennial of Gra (Read more)
Organs & Alliances (2018)
Organs & Alliances/Paroles imprimées is an experimental art project that brings together a group of young artists, researchers, and graphic designers from the Ecole nationale supérieure d’a (Read more)
Metabolic Chairs (2018–23)
As part of the course in Curatorial Theory and Dramaturgical Practice headed by Clémentine Deliss, the Metabolic Chairs were created by Diane Hillebrand together with Francesca-Romana Audretsch, J (Read more)
Dilijan Arts Observatory (2016)
The Arts Observatory took place in Dilijan, Armenia, from August 22 to September 11, 2016. Curated by Clémentine Deliss it was supported by philanthropists Ruben Vardanyan and Veronika Zonabend, f (Read more)
School of Remediation (2015)
The School of Remediation was the first intervention of the Metabolic Museum-University. It took place within the framework of the Kyiv Biennial of 2015. Following an introductory lecture, members (Read more)