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
3 Altaren: Zon, Maan, Aarde, 1989
Mixed Media , 3 x (2 x (122 x 244 cm))
paint and plastic foil on trovicel on wood

(3 Altars: Sun, Moon, Earth)

"This is a series of three works on PVC, each divided in two, the two parts connected by iron hinges, one part leaning against a wall, the second lying on the ground.

The first altar was made for the moon, the second for the sun and the third for the earth. The image of the moon altar is a woman offering her breasts, such as the Dea Nutrix in antiquity. She looks down. Her right breast is yellow, her left grey, referring to the moon that lightens up thanks to the projection of sunlight on its surface. The female figure standing on the sun altar stares at you from out of the negative, with golden hair, smiling, straight in your face. When you look into the sun, you become blind. On the third altar, there's a frolicking couple over which a swastika throws off its directions, becoming a cross.

The effigies are made in such a way that, standing at a certain spot before the work, they seem to come undone from their medium."

− AMVK