Wim Delvoye (1965) is a Belgian neo-conceptual artist known for his inventive and often shocking projects. Much of his work is focused on the body. 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.
Delvoye was raised in Wervik, a small town in Belgium. He did not have a religious upbringing but has been influenced by the Roman Catholic architecture that surrounded him. In a conversation with Michaël Amy of the New York Times, Delvoye stated, "I have vivid memories of crowds marching behind a single statue as well as of people kneeling in front of painted and carved altarpieces… Although I was barely aware of the ideas lurking behind these types of images, I soon understood that paintings and sculptures were of great importance".
Growing up, Delvoye attended exhibitions with his parents, and his love of drawing eventually led him to art school, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Ghent). Delvoye has said that the pessimistic expectations for Belgian art students freed him, essentially making him realize that he “had nothing to lose”. Shortly thereafter, 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.
Delvoye considers himself an originator of concepts—he is attracted initially to the theory behind pieces, instead of the act of painting itself. After 1990, specialists directed by Delvoye have executed most of his work. In 1992, 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. The organizer of Documenta IX, Jan Hoet claimed, “The strength of Wim Delvoye lies in his ability to engineer conflict by combining the fine arts and folk art, and playing seriousness against irony. Three of his most well known projects are “Cloaca”, “Art Farm”, and a series of Gothic works.
Delvoye's Cloaca is on permanent display at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Art Farm
Though Delvoye started tattooing pig skins taken from slaughterhouses in the United States in 1992, he began to tattoo live pigs in 1997. Delvoye was interested in the idea that “the pig would literally grow in value," both in a physical and economic sense. He ultimately moved the operation to an Art Farm in China in 2004. The pigs have been inked with a diverse array of designs, including the trivial, such as skulls and crosses, to Louis Vuitton designs, to designs dictated by the pig's anatomy".
Gothic works
Delvoye is additionally well known for his “gothic” style work. In 2001, Delvoye, with the help of a radiologist, had several of his friends paint themselves with small amounts of barium, and perform explicit sexual acts in medical X-ray clinics. He then used the X-ray scans to fill gothic window frames instead of classic stained glass. Delvoye suggests that radiography reduces the body to a machine. When he was not an active participant, Delvoye observed from a computer screen in another room, allowing the subjects enough distance to perform normally, although Delvoye has described the whole operation as "very medical, very antiseptic". Delvoye also creates oversized laser-cut steel sculptures of objects typically found in construction (like a cement truck), customized in seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque style. These structures juxtapose "medieval craftsmanship with Gothic filigree". Delvoye brings together the heavy, brute force of contemporary machinery and the delicate craftsmanship associated with Gothic architecture.
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| Mr. Wim Delvoye |
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| Ironing Boards 1990 |
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| Rose des Vents II 1995 |
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| Rose des Vents III 1996 |
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| Cloaca Original 2000 |
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| Cloaca Original 2000 |
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| Chantier 2003 |
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| Heurtoir 2006 |
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| Cement Truck 2007 |
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| Chapel 2007 |
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| D11 model 2007 |
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| Flatbed Trailer 2007 |
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| D11 2008 |
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| Chantier 2009 |
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| Chantier 2009 |
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| Daphnis & Chloë 2009 |
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| Nautilus 2009 |
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| Carved Tyres 2010 |
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| Carved Tyres 2010 |
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| Carved Tyres 2010 |
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| Cement Truck 2010 |
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| Suppo 2010 |
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| Tour (Rodin) 2010 |
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| Dump truck scale model 2011 |
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| Holy Family 2011 |
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| Pergola 2011 |
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| Pergola 2011 |
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| Tapisdermy Hamadam, Usak & Bidjar 2011 |
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| Tapisdermy, Usak 2011 |
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| Twisted Dump Truck 2011 |
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| Chapel MONA 2012 |
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| Mercurious Rorschach 2012 |
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| Suppo Penta CCW 2012 |
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| Carved Tyre 2013 |
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| Cement Truck 2013 |
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| Jewelry 2013 |
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| Slanted Dump Truck 2013 |
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| Twisted Tyres 2013 |
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| Dump truck 2014 |
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| Pergola Shangai 2014 |
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