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".

Babi Badalov

© Babi Badalov. Image: M HKA
VOAIZOVA (War is over), 2010-2010
Installation , 20 x 20 x 3 cm
glass, pens, paper, sketchbook

Badalov’s audiovisual project VOAIZOVA (War is Over), is based on his personal experience of linguistic inconveniences while travelling. In foreign countries, we often come across words written in the same alphabet as ours, but with different meaning, sound or pronunciation. The nomad life of an artist (or traveler, migrant, or refugee) does not only cause him or her a struggling adaptation period of cultural integration, but can primarily turn him or her into a prisoner of language. Badalov's projects play with this kind of linguistic notions in order to emphasize larger geo-political questions.