Middle Gate

    NLEN

    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".

    Middle Gate Geel '13

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    Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, image: (c) Luc Vuegen
    Untitled (Jack), 2002
    Paul McCarthy
    Sculpture , 60 x 60 x 46 cm
    donkerrode silicone

    Paul McCarthy is widely regarded as the most influential sculpture, installation and performance artist. He belongs to a generation that reacted to the Minimal and Concept Art of the sixties in a way that reinstates the bond between art and the societal context. McCarthy uses art to discover the coherence between the individual and society. Well known situations and events are deconstructed and given new meaning in his artworks. His work is mainly influenced by modern day television and commercials as well as Hollywood and Disney. He uses modern day myths and mixes them with his own critical views.

    The focus on sex and violence in his artworks is always in a certain context and represent the symbolic violence that is omnipresent in today’s mass media culture and even in family values. McCarthy is deeply interested in the deep rooted psychological layers of a culture, which is stuck in the standard cycle of raising a family and today’s media. He reacts to a culture that often befouls their own values. His methods to break through the taboos of such a culture are just as provocative as they are intelligent and humorous.

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