EXTRA MUROS: Geel – Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna
15 September 2018 - 04 November 2018
Stad Geel, Geel
Exhibition project Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna is a cooperation between M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, and cultural centre de Werft in Geel. Middle Gate II is the sequel to the exhibition Middle Gate made by Jan Hoet in Geel in 2013. The concept of the exhibition is intricately interwoven with the legend of Saint Dymphna, patroness of the possessed and mentally ill and patron saint against epilepsy and insanity. The legend of Dymphna is also closely linked to the identity of Geel, town of mercy.
Middle Gate II is structured around the four symbols of Saint Dymphna – crown, book, devil and sword – each representing a theme linked to Dymphna’s legend. The crown is connected to migration, the devil represents insanity, the book stands for spirituality and the sword is linked to (sexual) violence. These four symbols/themes are shown on four different locations, resulting in a group exhibition along a course across Geel: the Municipal Academy for visual arts (crown/migration), the Hospital Museum (devil/insanity), the Saint Dymphna Church (book/spirituality) and ‘De Halle’ (sword/(sexual) violence). All exhibited works enter into a dialogue with their specific location and the ‘permanent’ works (of art) and objects. Middle Gate II engages, often with works from the M HKA collection that have never been shown before, with four urgent social themes that were already addressed in the legend of Saint Dymphna.
Four female artists actively cooperated in setting up the exhibition. They each made a campaign image for the theme they helped to work out: Tinka Pittoors (crown/migration), Liliane Vertessen (devil/insanity), Nel Aerts (book/spirituality) and Els Dietvorst (sword/(sexual) violence).
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Practical information
Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna
15.09-04.11.2018
Saturday – Sunday 11:00-18:00
Groups after prior appointment
Municipal Academy for Visual Arts, Kollegestraat 11
Hospital Museum, Gasthuisstraat 1
Saint Dymphna Church, Sint-Dimpnaplein
De Halle, Markt 1
Items
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Glue sniffers
Sergey Bratkov / Сергій Братков, Glue sniffers, 2001. Photography, photo on aluminium, 7 x (90 x 90 cm).
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Untitled
Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Untitled, 1999. Print, ink, paper, 50 x 35 cm.
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NOT YET (and nobody know...
Donna Kukama, NOT YET (and nobody knows why not), 2008. Video, video, 00:04:56.
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Sail - Odyssey
Bia Davou, Sail - Odyssey, 1982. Sculpture, fabric, thread, 440 x 470 x 157 cm.
Media
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Actors
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Wout Vercammen
Wout Vercammen (1938-2018) is an Antwerp artist who took his Belgian nationality and turned it into a readymade product. He patents the Belgi
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Jacqueline Mesmaeker
Belgian visual artist Jacqueline Mesmaeker (°1929) begins her artistic career in the sixties as a fashion designer. She receives her degree f
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Els Dietvorst
Els Dietvorst (°1964) is a socially engaged artist, who uses her visual work as a means of creating social involvement. She graduates from th
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Rita McBride
Rita McBride (°1960) studies at Bard College and the California Institute of the Arts. She splits her time between New York, Rome and Düsseld
Ensembles
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GEWELD | VIOLENCE
It seems clear that in the case of Dymphna, the sting – t.i., the violence – is in the tail of her story, in the beheadings and the flickerin
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Eerste verdieping | First...
The video works for the theme Migration can be found on the first floor.
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MIGRATIE | MIGRATION
Dymphna escaping over sea with her confidant Gerebernus to mainland Europe is a key example of migration, a story in which many refugees will
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SPIRITUALITEIT | SPIRITUA...
Dymphna is interwoven with Christianity, from her secret baptism by her confessor and confidant Gerebernus, to the care for the poor and need