Middle Gate

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    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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    (c)image: M HKA
    Untitled, 1974
    Jan Cox
    Print , 900 x 690 mm
    silkscreen on paper

    In this silkscreen print it is mainly the 'spiral eyes' that make it recognizable as a portrait.  Jan Cox portrays himself, but the spiral form also implicates the eyes of the observing viewer; eye and gaze.  Or put another way: here is the search of the subject for the lost object, the search of Orpheus for Eurydice.  As well, the mother's gaze as lost object is also rendered visual.  Psychoanalytically, these motifs might be explained in terms of the Oedipus complex: for Jan Cox that lost, constantly sought for object, may be found revealed in the mother's gaze.

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