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".

Mark Manders

(c)image: M HKA
Fragment uit zelfportret als gebouw [Fragment from self-portrait as a building], 1993
Installation , variable dimensions
yton, foil, steel

One of the “rooms” from Mark Manders’ monumental total-work Self-portrait as a building is called Fragment from self-portrait as a building (1993) and was purchased by the M HKA in 1998. The work consists of a few human-like figures in gray, brown clay and a series of objects that are arranged on the ground in a precise composition, and where Manders gives free rein to his well-known obsession with the number 5. On instruction of the artist, here the M HKA itself can provide the architectural framework: the “room” is demarcated by an improvised wall of Ytong-blocks on the one side and a taut plastic sheet on the other. The ‘self-portrait as a building’ is an ongoing work-in-progress. When the things in the building are differently ordered or positioned, (our look at) the self-portrait of the identity of the artist is also changed. It is an investigation into identity, an identity with different sides, an identity that is evolving.