M HKA gaat digitaal

Met M HKA Ensembles zetten we onze eerste échte stappen in het digitale landschap. Ons doel is met behulp van nieuwe media de kunstwerken nog beter te kaderen dan we tot nu toe hebben kunnen doen.

We geven momenteel prioriteit aan smartphones en tablets, m.a.w. de in-museum-ervaring. Maar we zijn evenzeer hard aan het werk aan een veelzijdige desktop-versie. Tot het zover is vind je hier deze tussenversie.

M HKA goes digital

Embracing the possibilities of new media, M HKA is making a particular effort to share its knowledge and give art the framework it deserves.

We are currently focusing on the experience in the museum with this application for smartphones and tablets. In the future this will also lead to a versatile desktop version, which is now still in its construction phase.

Ensemble: SPIRITUALITEIT | SPIRITUALITY

Courtesy of the artist

Dymphna is interwoven with Christianity, from her secret baptism by her confessor and confidant Gerebernus, to the care for the poor and needy and the hermit's residence to which she emigrates. She is therefore also accompanied by the book. But actually, her spirituality is enclosed in a short, steadfast answer: 'no'.

In the European Middle Ages, spirituality stands for the spiritual, as opposed to the physical and sensory side of life. Spirituality represents 'the heavenly sphere of light versus the dark world of matter'. Spirituality in the broadest sense relates to matters concerning the mind. The word is used in many ways and there can be connections to religion or supernatural powers, but the emphasis is on the personal, inner experience. In a strict sense, the word indicates consciousness, or the human inner being that sees its origin in a divine or other transcendence, or in relation to a higher or endlessly larger reality. Spirituality is a special, but not necessarily confessional, take on life by a human being concentrating on transcendent truth or the highest reality.

It's in the Saint Dymphna Church – the translation of a legend into a possibility of faith within a public building – that contemporary art introduces proposals that testify to man's tendency to feel part of the value of a greater reality. This happens in front of the relics of Dymphna and Gerebernus. Not only the primary relics of their bones, but also the secondary relics: the fragments of the sarcophagi in which the bones supposedly once were preserved.  Around the former, there's a thirteenth-century reliquary with angels that is stored in a late Gothic casing figuring seven painted panels with scenes from the life of the saint.

With her enigmatic title image, Nel Aerts sets the tone for a series of artistic interventions that create space. The core of the body can serve as a starting point, like in the works by Dmitry Gutov, Sofie Muller or Johan Tahon, but Aerts also looks for broader connections. The smallest gesture contains the largest one, as is evident with Edith Dekyndt, Rita McBride or Guy Mees. And art can focus on essential experiences and their possibilities of giving meaning:  light, in the works of with Róza El-Hassan and Nazanin Fakoor; colour like in those of Alfons Hoppenbrouwers and Philippe Van Snick; height (Vadim Fishkin); time (Suchan Kinoshita and Jacqueline Mesmaeker). And finally language as an experience (leaving behind the mind and) going for a broader meaning, such as in the works by Bia Davou, Evgeny Granilshchikov, Mary Ellen Solt and Where Dogs Run.

For Middle Gate II, Guy Rombouts creates a work that he considered for the first Middle Gate: a hat alphabet. It has become a silent work, spread over the church's prayer chairs, with  each of the letters of the alphabet getting its own hat, folded from a blank sheet of paper that was once destined for the Geel newspaper.

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Works

>Mary Ellen Solt, Lobelia, Geranium, Wild Crab, Zinnia, Crab, Beginning or end, Lilac, Forsythia, zig zag, 1966.Poetry, paper, ink.

>Bia Davou, Sail - Odyssey, 1982.Sculpture, fabric, thread, 440 x 470 x 157 cm.

>Guy Mees, Verloren ruimte, 1988.Collage, 133 x 288 cm.

>Vadim Fishkin, count up-count down, 1994.Sculpture, wood, variable according to the height of the ceiling.

>Jacqueline Mesmaeker, CAMERA NON ASSISTÉE, 1996-2010.Video, video, monitor.

>Róza El-Hassan, Lichtmahl [Light Meal], 1996.Installation, lamps, fruit, Variable.

>Johan Tahon, Amor Spheroid, 1997.Sculpture, plaster, clay, 57 x 34 x 34 cm.

>Johan Tahon, Strobe, 1997.Sculpture, plaster, clay, 155 x 120 x 125 cm.

>Rita McBride, Mini Manager, 2004.Sculpture, white painted titanium.

>Dmitry Gutov, Feet II, 2013.Painting, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 cm.

>Edith Dekyndt, Untitled, 2014.Textile, wool, copper and palladium, 300 x 45 cm.

>Nazanin Fakoor, Light Drawing, 2016.Installation.

>Philippe Van Snick, Eilanden, 2016.Installation.

>Nel Aerts, The Best Helmsmen Stand on Shore, 2017.Painting.

>Sofie Muller, AL/IL/17, 2017.Installation, plaster, metal, 65 x 100 x 150 cm.

>Suchan Kinoshita, Honingklok, 2017.Sculpture, glass, honey.

> Where Dogs Run, Evaporation of the Constitution, 2017.Installation, mixed media (irons, water, electronic components, plastic, metal, glass, acrylic glass, silicone sealants, wood, microcontrollers, temperature sensors, computer, power supplies, control drivers, software, projection).

>Guy Rombouts, DIMPNANFMYD, 2018.Installation, video.

>Guy Rombouts, Uplifting Things, 2018.Installation, paper.

>Nel Aerts, Dobberende Dimpna, 2018.Painting.

>Alfons Hoppenbrouwers, Zonder titel.Painting.

>Evgeny Granilshchikov, Untitled.Collage, drawing, paper, various.