For this commission, Chetwynd will create a new sculptural entrance on the east side of the art park. This portal will serve as a gateway for the surrounding communities, including patients and visitors of the ZAS–Middelheim and UKJA hospitals, as well as students from the University of Antwerp. The work is part of a broader project in which the Middelheim Museum collaborates closely with children and young people from the UKJA mental health hospital. At its core lies the question of how the art park can enrich the lives of people facing (mental) health challenges. Chetwynd’s intervention draws on the motif of the salamander — a creature that embodies 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.” — Monster Chetwynd, 2025
The portal became the point of departure for developing Chetwynd’s first outdoor solo exhibition. Conceptually, the interplay between art and nature — creating spaces for feeling, imagination, and resilience — proved a powerful inspiration. The exhibition raises questions such as: 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?
Chetwynd’s Friends Making Machine offers an answer: a tool that weaves an invisible network of people, objects, artworks, and experiences. The works are presented in a repertoire that expands into a network of performances, sculptures, workshops, and films. Both existing and new works are brought to life by creatures, personas, and stories that surface in different forms and at different moments.
At the Middelheim Museum, Chetwynd’s practice can be understood as an ecosystem, existing alongside the natural ecosystems of the park. Like them, it embodies practices of care and resilience, which often remain hidden—like the tunnels of moles. Every work in the exhibition, including the portal, acts as an entry point into Chetwynd’s world. Within this network, social relations between authors, filmmakers, performers, artists, and audiences take center stage.
Step into Monster’s Friends Making Machine!
About the artist
Since 2018, the artist has worked under the name Monster Chetwynd. Born in London, UK, in 1973, she now lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland, where she also teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Her practice interweaves interactive performance, sculpture, painting, installation, and video into a body of work infused with elements of folk games, popular culture, and surrealist cinema.