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".

    Ria Pacquée

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    Courtesy of the artist, image: (c) M HKA
    I didn’t do it, 2016
    Ria Pacquée
    Installation , variable dimensions
    Graffiti

    Ria Pacquée has organised many performative interventions and statements within the urban landscape. Since 1978, she has spread political slogans in the streets of Antwerp as one strand of her practice. This includes sentences such as “Oh godverdoemme” (“Oh goddamn it”) or “ga langzaam naar uw werk” (“go to work slowly”), and are written onto abandoned buildings using spray paint, but occasionally within exhibitions. This message “I didn’t do it” is on the one hand a contradictory message, as the artist carries out the (sometimes illegal) acts herself. “I didn’t do it” is also something said in Chapter 5 titled Blue of Bolaño’s Antwerp, in a scenario when a local person is questioned by the police following the shooting of six young people close to a campsite.

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