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".

WAANZIN | MADNESS

(c)image:M HKA
Oh! Those Voices, Boston, 1972
Painting , 127 x 159 cm
acrylic on canvas

Jan Cox’s oeuvre is profoundly impacted by his experiences as a young person of the German Nazi regime. This is the horror he acted against throughout his career. His works are usually characterized by compositions with a magical, surreal atmosphere, with references to ‘classical’ themes such as violence, cruelty, and vulnerability. In Oh! Those Voices, Boston Cox combines the experience of daily life with flashes of memories and feelings. These visions, that might seem to have been induced by intoxication, are not actual phantasms but the ghosts of death and doom, like those we encounter in stories from the Bible and in Greek mythology. Likewise, in Ukraine, the traumatic experience and horrors of war are melting into everyone's daily life – from doom scrolling when reading the news, to the sudden reminders, that are capable of ruining rare moments of tranquility in a flash.