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".

Hugo Roelandt

(c)Estate Hugo Roelandt
Pavimenti, 1987
Installation

A monument is made in the city with (objects that are typical for) the city. Building materials characteristic for an urban environment are used with a different, artistic function. Material: concrete paving stones, 30 × 30 × 5 cm. The project consists of the extension of a 2-dimensional row of paving stones (the footpath) into the 3th dimension: the row of stones is extended upwards the front of a house. The city in this way naturally flows over in its own monument. A movement, a displacement takes place that is constitutive for the monumental character of the work: material that is usually only used as a two dimensional flat plane, is used here three-dimensionally: as a stack, as a wall. The project is part of a series of architecturally oriented monumental ‘displacements’. Other works in the series were the use of a shipyard as a stage in the Boel-project (1985), a pyramid formed of everyday objects like tables (Keizershallenproject 1986), or plastic bags filled with water (Aalst, Fondacio Miro – Barcelona 1986), and an obelisk built out of new composite materials (Hard op de Tong, Beursschouwburg 1987).

(Abstracts from Hugo Roelandt: Let's Expand The Sky, red. Mark Holthof, Occasional Papers, London, 2016)