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".
Cidade, which is Portuguese for “city”, is a neon text work that uses the poem Cidade City Cité written in 1958 by the Brazilian concrete poet Augusto de Campos. As in the original poem, the text comprises a single sentence in Portuguese with all the spaces between words removed. The work looks to reflect the non-translatability of experiencing a different place, yet foregrounds the language itself in the vivid representational form of neon text.
