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)image: AMVK
Bloem van Smarten, 1990-1991
Mixed Media , 3 x (112 x 224 x 3 cm)
paint and plastic foil on trovicel on wood

"As a result of the unstoppable, ever growing presence of computers and the powers that are attributed to them, the academic world starts to think about a Principia Cybernetica, analog to the Principia Mathematica. At the V.U.B. in Brussels a team of researchers tried to built a system of cybernetic philosophy related to epistemology (1), metaphysics (2) and ethics (3), concerned about the highest human values. Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone are Erinyen (Moirai), like furies and Gorgons they are instruments of divine revenge for human mistakes. They impersonate human conscience that at first defends and prevents, then judges and destroys. When revenge goddesses become Moirai they more specifically deal with "fate"." 

− AMVK