1. Wim Delvoye has an eclectic oeuvre, exposing his interest in a range of themes, from bodily function, and scatology to the function of art in the current market economy, and numerous subjects in between.
19 Facts About Wim Delvoye
1. 2.
Wim Delvoye was raised in Wervik, a small town in West Flanders, Belgium.
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Wim Delvoye did not have a religious upbringing but has been influenced by the Roman Catholic architecture that surrounded him.
4.
Wim Delvoye has said that the pessimistic expectations for Belgian art students freed him, essentially making him realize that he "had nothing to lose".
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Shortly thereafter, Wim Delvoye began painting over wallpaper and carpets, coloring in the existing patterns and defying the tendency towards free expression vibrant in the art world at the time.
6.
In 1992, Wim Delvoye received international recognition with the presentation of his Mosaic at Documenta IX, a symmetrical display of glazed tiles featuring photographs of his own excrement.
7.
Wim Delvoye exhibited live pigs and dried skins of pigs, both covered in tattoos drawn from the domain of bikers and punk rockers: skulls, daggers, snakes, hearts, and Harley Davidson logos.
8.
Wim Delvoye is perhaps best known for his digestive machine, Cloaca, which he unveiled at the Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, after eight years of consultation with experts in fields ranging from plumbing to gastroenterology.
9.
Wim Delvoye collects and sells the realistically smelling output, suspended in small jars of resin at his Ghent studio.
10.
Wim Delvoye sold specially printed toilet paper as a souvenir of the exhibit.
11.
Previously, Wim Delvoye claimed that he would never sell a Cloaca machine to a museum as he could never trust that the curator would maintain the installation properly.
12.
However, after two years of discussion with David Walsh, Wim Delvoye agreed to construct a custom Cloaca built specifically for the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania.
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Wim Delvoye was interested in the idea that "the pig would literally grow in value," both in a physical and economic sense.
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Wim Delvoye ultimately moved the operation to an Art Farm in China in 2004.
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Wim Delvoye then used the X-ray scans to fill gothic window frames instead of classic stained glass.
16.
Wim Delvoye suggests that radiography reduces the body to a machine.
17.
When he was not an active participant, Wim Delvoye observed from a computer screen in another room, allowing the subjects enough distance to perform normally, although Wim Delvoye has described the whole operation as "very medical, very antiseptic".
18.
Wim Delvoye creates oversized laser-cut steel sculptures of objects typically found in construction, customized in seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque style.
19.
Wim Delvoye brings together the heavy, brute force of contemporary machinery and the delicate craftsmanship associated with Gothic architecture.