The Middelheimmuseum in Antwerp will present ‘Monster Chetwynd. A Friends Making Machine’, the British artist’s first museum solo exhibition in Belgium and her first-ever open-air show, from 16 May to 11 October 2026.
The exhibition will feature installations, performances, and public activities across the museum’s sculpture park, with a celebratory opening on 16 May and an additional performance weekend on 12 and 13 September 2026.
Chetwynd has also designed the Salamander Portal, a new, permanent entrance on the park’s east side, symbolically connecting the museum to its surrounding community, including patients from ZAS–Middelheim, young people from UKJA (a centre for child and adolescent psychiatry), and students from the University of Antwerp.
A celebration of collaboration and connection
For over three decades, Monster Chetwynd’s work has blended installation, sculpture, performance, video, and painting, characterised by a distinctly handmade, DIY aesthetic. Her practice draws from art history, anthropology, folklore, and pop culture, but at its heart lies collaboration.
‘A Friends Making Machine’ refers to the ‘troupe’ of friends, family, artists, and makers who contribute to her projects – some long-term companions, others passing through in shifting constellations.
Co-creation and conversation are central to her process, as Chetwynd herself puts it: “I want my art to be generative; that it galvanizes, ignites and inspires!”
The exhibition explores the bonds we form throughout life. Friendships, historical figures, contemporary heroes, acts of care, and gestures of generosity. These connections, whether deep or fleeting, weave together a shared human experience.
An immersive outdoor experience
Chetwynd’s first open-air exhibition embraces reciprocity with the park, where nature welcomes her in return. Visible and invisible species, celebrated creatures and underdogs alike, appear as part of a delicate ecosystem. Underground networks, like fungal mycelium and mole tunnels, serve as metaphors for the invisible yet vital relationships between people.
The exhibition is concentrated in a single zone, largely separate from the museum’s permanent collection.
Large, colourful installations invite visitors to step into Chetwynd’s world, where classical theatrical and visual elements—such as the proscenium arch and the hellmouth—create a bustling landscape of humans and non-humans. Visitors are encouraged to engage intuitively: walking, playing, sitting, rolling, or lying down.
They can observe and be observed, like characters in a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, whether quietly or exuberantly—by stepping into a rolling tear in ‘Tears‘ or drawing inspiration from the theatricality of ‘Thunder, Crackle and Magic‘.
For those who seek deeper engagement, Chetwynd’s work reveals layers of references, from Werner Herzog to Octavia Butler, from Bomarzo’s ‘Sacro Bosco‘ to Saul Bass’ ‘Phase IV‘, and from hedgehog calendars to Salvador Dalí’s jewels. Like her collaborations, the exhibition invites the public to experience art as a shared practice rather than an individual pursuit.
Salamander Portal: a gateway to possibility
The Salamander Portal, designed by Chetwynd, is a new entrance on the park’s east side, symbolising connection with the local community. The sculptural work, created in collaboration with children and young people from UKJA, features a stone structure with carved drawings, evoking a science-fiction fantasy and suggesting a passage to endless possibilities. Salamanders, symbols of resilience and regeneration, act as gatekeepers.
Lien Van de Kelder (Vooruit), Alderwoman for culture, said: “Is it visual art, theatre, literature, science, or history? Are you just a spectator, or are you part of the whole? In the Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp’s garden, Monster Chetwynd invites visitors on an adventure through a colourful and interactive journey. What is particularly close to my heart is the Salamander Portal, the new connection between the hospital and its associated child and adolescent psychiatry and the museum. Conceived together with the artist, the children, the psychiatric teams, and the museum staff, it is art on doctor’s orders, so to speak. This beautiful gate literally creates a connection between care and imagination. Whether art can save the world, I don’t know, but here it is at least a balm for the soul.”
Sara Weyns, director of Middelheimmuseum, added: “Monster Chetwynd teaches us to be generous and not afraid to do things our own way.”
Pieter Boons, curator, noted: “Salamanders live both in water and on land, moving effortlessly between two worlds, just as we move between vulnerability and strength.”
Prof. dr. Inge Glazemakers (ZAS-UKJA; CAPRI research group, University of Antwerp) explained: “We asked the children and young people of UKJA for their ideas about the new connection between the hospital, university, and museum. They said the gate marks a symbolic transition to another world, where wonder, escape, and recovery become possible. Their responses highlight the importance of art as a shared space where therapeutic processes, imagination, and future-oriented thinking converge. For ZAS-UKJA staff, the gate provides access to an external therapy space, where art and nature support the recovery of children, young people, and their context—an impact we are currently exploring further.”
Performances and workshops
The exhibition will open with performances on 16 May and again on 12 and 13 September, transforming the installations into unique theatres. Handmade costumes and exuberant props create performances that are absurd, boisterous, and irreverent, yet also moments of joy and emotion. Only Chetwynd could stage Star Wars gangster Jabba the Hutt in a piece about care, impermanence, and biodegradable materials.
Other performances take the form of workshops, where visitors collaborate with the artist to experience how making things together can be a powerful bonding agent. For example, the Iron Age Pasta Necklace workshop culminates in a ritual where the collective creations are offered to the Discerning Eye.
Chetwynd protects these fleeting moments where people can come together without explanation or social convention. Twenty to forty minutes of voluntary, shared engagement build, in her words, “invisible strands of a substance as strong and mysterious as a spider’s web”.
Art and museums in Antwerp
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- ANTWERP | ‘Martial Arts’: MAS exhibition explores the rich world of combat sports and martial traditions.
- REVIEW | ‘The Antwerp Six’ exhibition at the Antwerp fashion museum MoMu.
- ANTWERP | Museum Plantin-Moretus’ ‘Plantin’s Plants’ exhibition until 2 August 2026.
- FOMU 2026 | Carrie Mae Weems, Diane Severin Nguyen, Families, and Tenderly There by Tashattot.
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- A visit of the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum – Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) in Antwerp.
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