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".

Jacques Charlier

image: (c) M HKA, Collection Province de Hainaut / Dépôt BPS22, Charleroi.
Peinture Cérébrale, 1989
Sculpture

In 1988, under a pseudonym, he presents Peintures-Schilderijen, a collection of 15 artists invented from scratch (with supporting biographies) with as proclaimed objective to break with styles, creating confusion and interpreting artistic currents in implosive scenarios.

It is during that period that he made his large installations combining painting and objects, around general themes, emphasising the manipulations that images can serve, including in the artistic field. Humour and poetic evocation, however, prevent the work from appearing unnecessarily moralizing. Thus, from the adjective ‘cerebral’, often used by art critics, he imagines the pictorial painting style referring to it and adds a ceramic brain, placed on a pedestal.