Monster Chetwynd A Friends Making Machine

The Middelheim Museum is proud to present the first outdoor solo exhibition by international artist Monster Chetwynd. The exhibition takes its starting point from a new commission for the museum’s collection and unfolds into a landmark presentation of Chetwynd’s multifaceted practice. Visitors are invited to step into and actively engage with the artist’s imaginative universe.

The exhibition features a major new permanent commission for the museum’s collection: a sculptural entrance, or “portal” on the east side of the art-park, and unfolds into a landmark presentation of Chetwynd’s multifaceted practice, bringing together performances, sculptures, workshops, and films. 

Serving as a welcoming gateway, the portal connects the museum with its surrounding communities, including patients and visitors of the ZAS–Middelheim and UKJA hospitals, as well as students from the University of Antwerp. This work forms part of a broader collaborative project through which the museum engages closely with children and young people from the UKJA mental health hospital.

Existing works and newly created pieces will be animated by creatures, personas, and stories that emerge in different forms and at unexpected moments. For example, Chetwynd’s portal will draw on the motif of the salamander – a creature symbolising resilience and renewal, capable of regenerating a lost tail, limb, or even an organ. “Salamanders can live both in water and on land, and thus move smoothly between two worlds, just as we do between vulnerability and strength,” notes the artist. 

Throughout the exhibition, Chetwynd asks: How can art contribute to wellbeing? Can it open a rabbit hole to disappear into? Can it spark unexpected or even subversive experiences that disrupt daily routines and to-do lists? A FRIENDS MAKING MACHINE offers a response: a tool that forges an invisible network of people, objects, artworks, and encounters. It encourages visitors to slow down, imagine, reconnect, and experience the subtle ways art can weave together people, stories, and shared moments.

At Middelheim Museum, Chetwynd’s practice can be understood as an ecosystem – one that coexists with the natural ecosystems of the park. Like these, it is rooted in acts of care and resilience, many of which remain hidden. Each work in the exhibition, including the portal, functions as a point of entry into Chetwynd’s world. Within this network, social relations between authors, filmmakers, performers, artists, and audiences take centre stage.

Middelheim Museum, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, offers a unique environment for Chetwynd’s exhibition, with the art-park located on a 33-hectare site where art and nature come together. The museum was founded in 1950 with a bold postwar vision to open sculpture to the world. Today, it continues to deepen understanding of sculpture’s role in society while shaping vital conversations about how cultural institutions can foster wellbeing, resilience, and new ways of engaging with art in public spaces. With more than 250 sculptures on view daily, a collection of over 1,800 works, and year-round programming, including workshops with neighbouring hospitals, slow-looking tours, and sensory walks designed to reduce stress and build confidence through creative engagement in nature, Middelheim offers a place of reflection, rest, reflection and renewal.