The exhibition project Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna is a collaboration between M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) and the cultural centre de Werft in Geel. Middle Gate II is the follow up to the exhibition Middle Gate, curated by Jan Hoet in Geel in 2013. The exhibition concept is closely tied to the legend of the holy Dymphna, saint of the possessed, the mentally ill and patroness against epilepsy and insanity. The legend of Dymphna shares a strong connection to the identity of Geel, "the charitable city".

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven / AMVK

(c)video still: AMVK
Wat Magnetisme is, 2005
Video , 00:12:00
computer animation

"In October 2003 I gave a workshop in Mar Del Plata in Argentina for 21 days, in french which was simultaneously translated in spanish by German Scalona, a poet and drawing artist from that town. By these circumstances a remarkable bond grew between us after a couple of days and by the end German was completely possessed by my ideas as an artist. For him is was a great revelation he said. It changed his life. Mine as well.

Through these weeks our inner resemblance grew stronger and stronger, and we were more than once mentally one, which also led to serious discomforts. We decided to seal our encounter with a ritual travel to a magnetic wood at 100kms from Mar Del Plata. We would have breakfast together first, take a taxi to the busstation, take the bus, and then a taxi to the remote forest, where the crowns of the trees grew into each other. We went into the wood and slept for a while. We decided that I would film anything that happened and that anything that came out of it would be an artwork by both of us. German was an AIDS patient and had a very weak health. He survives on medication and says that the alchemistic is the true materialism."

− AMVK


Camera: AMVK

Editing: AMVK

Animation: AMVK

Soundtrack: Mauro Pawlowski, AMVK

Actors: German Scalona

Produced by: Club Moral