Embracing Life's Paradoxes

Wim Delvoye, Torre, Cor-Ten Steel, 2009, Installation Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

I told you I’d return to the works I taught about on my collection tour!

This Gothic Tower called Torre, was created by contemporary Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. The piece was installed on the canal side of the palazzo this summer, just before the Venice Biennale, to draw people’s attention to the museum at a time when many other art related events might have distracted people from visiting the museum. One of the reasons I felt I had to briefly discuss the work is because it was actually supposed to have been taken down already, but the institution that is borrowing it next isn't quite ready for it, so we're fortunate enough to continue enjoying it here.

To me, the most interesting part of the work is that it is filled with contrasts. On the one hand it's modeled after a medieval gothic tower; on the other hand, it was made using lasers, a modern technology. Likewise, it's modelled after a medieval architectural tradition, yet it stands in front of the 18^th century palazzo, which houses 20^th century art. Additionally, the work is an architectural structure, however it’s openness makes it essentially useless as a form of shelter.

The theme of contrasts is prevalent throughout much of Delvoye's work. Perhaps most famously, or at the very least most comically, Delvoye made a poop machine, which he called Cloaca, (which is the Latin word for sewer). Essentially the machine simulates the natural process of creating faeces. Delvoye fed the machine real human food, in fact he even hired a chef to make beautiful meals for the machine, and through some sort of digestive process, the food would transform into poop that the machine would proceed to release. Thus, the machine begged questions such as where is the line between human and machine? And where is the line between art at shit? If you care to learn more about Cloaca take a peak at this funny YouTube clip:

As my father said to me just today, “it seems that great art is about inviting one to consider the paradoxes of life…to live more comfortably if not joyously with contradictions that are at the heart of our humanness…” And clearly, Wim Delvoye understands just that.