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".

SPIRITUALITEIT | SPIRITUALITY

© image: M HKA
Feet II, 2013
Painting , 30 x 25 cm
oil on canvas

Dmitry Gutov is fascinated by the motif of the footprint in stone – in art and philosophy – as a metaphor for persistent ideas that are maintained despite turbulent times. The artist combines his examination of this concept with his view on Marxist philosophy following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a notion that has survived history's twists and turns. In this regard, for years Gutov studied not only texts of writers such as Hegel, Herzen and Lifshitz, but also Buddhist garden architecture, 19th-century Russian painting and social-realist sculpture.