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".

GEWELD | VIOLENCE

(c)Artūras Raila, video still
Under the Flag , 1999-2015
Video , 00:20:00
2 channel digital video, color, sound

In the late 1990s, Raila began collaborating with Mindaugas Murza, the founder of the lnsvs/Lithuanian Alliance of National-Socialist Unity, Lithuania’s first neo- Nazi organisation. For Under the Flag, Raila first traveled to Linz to record his impressions of everyday life during the Austrian parliamentary elections of 1999 — which marked the final breakthrough for Jörg Haider’s far-right fpö/ Freedom Party of Austria. Back in Lithuania, Raila showed the footage to Murza and four other members of the lnsvs, filming their reactions. The final work is a split-screen video, featuring Raila’s footage from Linz on one side, and the lnsvs members — sitting under their Nazi-inspired party flag — on the other. The party members’ comments are a confused mishmash of racism, anti-Americanism, homophobia and anti-Semitism. In the end, despite previous agreements, Murza refused to allow the video to be shown in Lithuania. Under the Flag not only shows the workings of illiberal right-wing populism up close, but also demonstrates how the extreme-right worldview was able to make a comeback throughout Europe in the 1990s.