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".

    Hugo Roelandt

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    (c)Estate Hugo Roelandt
    Aeromatic Art Project 1, 1983
    Marc Holthof, Greet Verlinden, Hugo Roelandt
    Performance

    "A further study in MOVEMENT: model-helicopters hovering immobile above the ground. Technology as art, without symbolic references." - Hugo Roelandt

    < Young Artists from Antwerp, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, september '83

    < Gallery of the Academy, Waasmunster, october '85

    Flying is an artistically popular theme. From Brueghel’s Fall of Icaros to Leonardo and Panamarenko. But art never really flies: line, structure and form suggest the flying. Art remains stuck to the earth. In Aeromatic Art Project the roles are reversed: art does not show the liberating flying; the flying generates art, and suggests line, colour and structure. Technology acquires a fascinating, festive character. Aeromatic Art Project is part of a series on play, technology and movement. This project is also a play with, and simulation of, situations in reality. As they are shown to us every day by the media. The project refers explicitly to the ancient dream of man wanting to fly as it lives on in the fascination for media images, video games and amusement parks. Play is an evolution of the mind –as Huizinga noted. Technology itself is in Aeromatic Art Project the material used to realise the artistic product. This technology does not stand for anything else but itself. Flying is no longer a symbol; the artistic reference is taken away. Leonardo’s wish-dream has long since become a reality. Aeromatic Art Project does not come out of the blue.

    (Abstracts from Hugo Roelandt: Let's Expand The Sky, red. Mark Holthof, Occasional Papers, London, 2016)

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