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".

    Lili Dujourie

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    (c)image: Ronny Heirman
    The Kiss, 1986
    Lili Dujourie
    Sculpture , 432 x 102.5 x 244 cm
    wood, textiles, glass, silver, fluid

    The Kiss from 1986 – with red drapes and a striking bowl, filled with a clear blue liquid – is a conceptual reconstruction of a classic still life. As in almost all of her work, the artist here creates a hybrid of painting and sculpture. The Flemish Primitives of the fifteenth century and the baroque painters of the seventeenth are important sources of inspiration, which is reflected in, among other things, the considerable amount of staging that goes into each of the works. The round shapes of the velvet and the wood are at odds with the strict geometric construction of the black triangle. The confrontation between the hard and soft materials, and the concealing yet simultaneously revealing character of the red velvet give the work a romantic tension reminiscent of that between Eros and Thanatos.

    Text: Hans Willemse
    Translations: Michael Meert

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