Middle Gate

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".

Taus Makhacheva

Back

Mining serendipity, 2020

Taus Makhacheva

Multiple , Chain: 47 cm / wooden box: 11 x 17 x 7 cm

Brass, glass, gold, black porcelain

Commissioned in times of increased distancing, Mining Serendipity is a toolkit that represents the potentialities for the new modes of coexistence in the world. The work draws upon ideas proposed by Soviet futurologists during the 1971 Sochi conference on psychotechnics as well as the visions stretching from the mediaeval times to contemporary theories of collectivity such as Rupert Sheldrake’s ‘morphic resonance’. The fully dismountable set includes a sectional case, a segmented chain and seven pendants that can be assembled in any possible combination. The necklace with seven pendants represents extrasensory skills and abilities that suggest new modes of sporadic and serendipitous collectivity. Some of the artefacts stand for powers invoked by Makhacheva; for example, HSBM (Highly Superior Biographical Memory) as an empathetic ability to focus on the biographies of people and objects, and RS (Remote Synaesthesia) as a soft skill standing for non-haptic communication.

Back