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
Prober met filosofen: Spinoza, 2000
Mixed Media , 42 x 29.7 cm
computer print on plexiglas and pvc, with magnetic back

(Prober with Philosophers: Spinoza)

"These works are part of the whole process around Morele Herbewapening (Moral Rearmament), a Sex and Technology project, with the subtitle Veerkracht Thuis! (Resilience at Home!).

As HeadNurse, I took 96 images of women from my database and connected them with words from texts about possibilities for internal self-organisation, about thermodynamics and knowledge representation, about order in systems in a state of imbalance, about connectionist networks and about the representation of concepts and associations in general. Through a systematic use and reuse of images of women, from the first nude magazines to the Sexual Revolution, I activated an alchemical process in five steps. Starting from Baroque thinkers, all the way to Nietzsche. As HeadNurse, I am both the assistant of Nietzsche and the female counterpart of Big Brother."

− AMVK