Middle Gate
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".
All this is shown very clearly in the video documenting the performance The Swing (After Fragonard). Dressed in white and sitting on a swing suspended from a highway flyover, Kukama swung leisurely back and forth, dropping banknotes onto the street below, where people quickly scrambled for them. Perhaps it was poetic justice that the swing broke and she fell to the same inferior level, painfully breaking her leg. (AK)
