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".

Luc Deleu

(c)image: M HKA
Legoconstructie, 1978
Collage , 65.5 x 65.5 cm
cibachrome

For Luc Deleu and his collaborators, plans and ideas are elaborated collectively.  The modern trend for personality cults in the worlds of architecture and art provided the impulse (in 1970) for Deleu and colleagues to establish their alternative urban planning office, T.O.P. -office (Turn On Planning).  The young office did not have the aim of pushing to the top of the existing architectural establishment, but rather wished to act as a critical, irritating presence in that world, as an agent for radical change (indeed, the O of T.O.P. was designed as the globe of the Earth turned 'upside down').  As token of their disruptive efficacy, for 15 years T.O.P. was banned (by the official Order of Architects) from being listed in the phone book under 'Architects'.

The T.O.P.-office does not proceed with their projects in the 'normal' way: they start with detailed drawn plans, then comes the architectural scale model, and finally the realization of a building.  As a colorful and playful alternative, an architect - as 'homo ludens' (playing man) - may for example make his scale modeled out of Lego blocks.  This way, created are objects that do not directly mimic a final, 'real' execution.  The criss-cross use of the colored blocks breach the objects' symmetry.  There are six elaborated Lego constructions, and each construction is composed from out of the Lego blocks of its predecessor.  What remains from the first five is the documentation in the form of a photograph of each respective construction, where below is written: model demolished or in one case model destroyed, followed by the year such took place.