Middle Gate

    NLEN

    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".

    Fred Bervoets

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    ©Private Collection, Dendermonde
    De Gezegende Nederlaag, 1971
    Fred Bervoets
    Painting , 237 x 275 x 5.5 cm
    oil on canvas

    In the exhibition Sanguine/Bloedrood, Bervoets is brought into resonance with the photographic portraiture of Gautherot. By displaying the spaghetti painting from the seventies on a black wall, the use of colour in the teeming forms is emphasised and the work acquires a compelling presence. In the endless entanglement of depth and perspective – reminiscent of psychotic delusions – a busy and especially complex world is evoked. Here, Bervoets shows the aesthetic violence of a machine in the form of a modern pittura metaphysica.

    Text: Hans Willemse
    Translations: Michael Meert

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