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".

Jan Cox

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©Courtesy Archief De Zwarte Panter, Antwerpen

Visual Thinking Expressed in Words, 1938

Jan Cox

Text , 1 p

Visual Thinking Expressed in Words, a typescript by Jan Cox.

This enigmatic text from the archives of De Zwarte Panter gallery, combines intensity, physical experience and elements of actual perception in a manner that resonates with Cox's oeuvre. Below in capital letters we have 'PICASSO', as though he would be the author or source of inspiration. Above stands "2.2" and "38". The text benefits from another short passage in English that thematizes the tension between freedom - often spoken of, little present - and security, decision and verdict. This also leads the soothsayer to transmit the message instead of tossing the coffee-grounds in the face of the client. Both texts were kept together in a plastic folder, along with a 1966 article from the Boston Globe, where comics were praised as the right space for art in an era when it had become abstract and incomprehensible, with Picasso at the pinnacle.

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