The starting point of this exhibition is the new gateway that Chetwynd created for the museum collection. This striking gate welcomes visitors and sparks their imagination. It connects the museum both physically and symbolically with local residents, patients from the hospital (ZAS Middelheim and the centre for child and adolescent psychiatry UKJA), and students from the University of Antwerp.
The round stone gateway, with its sculpted patterns, evokes a science-fiction-like fantasy world. It feels as if, with a single step, you enter a world full of new possibilities. Salamanders stand guard here. These animals symbolise resilience and renewal: they can regrow a lost tail, limbs or even organs. Salamanders live both in water and on land. They move easily between two worlds – just as we move between vulnerability and strength.
Chetwynd created this portal in close collaboration with children and young people from UKJA. It shows how carefully the artist attunes her work to the place and context in which it emerges. Like HELLMOUTH 5 (2025), Salamander Portal (2026) is a real passage: an exciting and inviting transition from one place to another.
Since 2023, the hospital, the university and the museum have been working closely together. This collaboration led, among other things, to a new art commission centred on the idea of a gateway. Salamander Portal emerged through an intensive co-creation process with the children and young people of UKJA. They helped shape what they felt was important in a passage between the hospital and the sculpture park.
Inge Glazenmakers is a clinical researcher at ZAS–UKJA and associate professor at CAPRI (Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research Institute) at the University of Antwerp. She closely followed the project:
“We asked the children how this artwork made them feel. One said it made them happy. Another loved the colours, and someone else thought it could include imitation crystals. The salamander especially touched them — a symbol of rebirth and growth. In this way, Chetwynd’s gateway became a shared place where therapy, imagination and the future come together.”