Wim Delvoye in Basel

In Switzerland’s first major retrospective of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye at the Museum Tinguely tradition clashes with utopia, and craftsmanship with high-tech.

Museum Tinguely hosts Switzerland’s first major retrospective of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. Since the late 1980s, Delvoye has been known for works that rest on intelligently witty admixtures of the profane with the sublime, where tradition clashes with utopia, and craftsmanship with high-tech.

Img.1 Wim Delvoye, Cement Truck, 2016. Installation view at Solitude Park, Basel. Laser-cut Corten steel. Sepherot Foundation, Liechtenstein. © 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich / Wim Delvoye. Photo Daniel Spehr

Probably his best known works are his Cloacas, which mechanically reconstruct the physiological processes that take place inside the human body between ingestion and excretion and so visualise one of the basic constants of our existence. The artist’s more recent replicas of construction machinery and trucks using Gothic-style ornaments attest to his delight in aesthetic experimentation and monumental works based on professional constructions and built out of laser-cut steel plates. The exhibition in Basel, which was created in collaboration with MUDAM Luxembourg, showcases the whole gamut of Delvoye’s work from his early days to the present.

Img.2 Wim Delvoye, Tim, 2006-2008. Installation view at Museum Tinguely, 2017. © 2017 ProLitteris, Zurich / Wim Delvoye. Photo Museum Tinguely, Basel / Stefan Schmidlin

It all began with the drawings that Delvoye made as a child, which can indeed be read as laying the foundations of what was to follow. Here, we already find the openness, the curiosity, the penchant for monumentality and the thrill of all things new and strange that have consistently characterised both the man and his work. Delvoye’s art is rooted in his own Flemish heritage with its love of tradition, craftsmanship, and engineering combined with an openness to the world, a lively imagination, and utopianism – as evidenced in the works of other Flemish artists like James Ensor, Paul Van Hoeydonck and Panamarenko. At the same time, Delvoye is one for whom national borders have no meaning, which is why he works with artisans in Indonesia, China or Iran. His Ironing Boards (1990) bear the coats of arms of his home country, while his 18 Dutch Gas-Cans (1987–1988) are decorated with Delft porcelain painting. The solid steel tubes in Chantier V (1995) are supported by specially made porcelain feet, while some of the concrete mixers and barriers in Chantier I (1990–1992) are made of artfully carved wood. Media intermingle; materials are suspended in a creative tension. The banal is embellished to make it art; folk art becomes a museum piece.

Another highlight of the exhibition will be Cement Truck (2012–2016), which is set up in Solitude Park next to Museum Tinguely. This full-size vehicle is made of Corten steel plates which have been laser cut to reproduce neo-Gothic tracery and ornaments. The same aesthetic informs the drop-shaped Suppo (2010), a neo-Gothic cathedral model comprising only a single twisted and contorted spire with ornamentation.

until 1 January 2018
Wim Delvoye
Museum Tinguely
Paul Sacher-Anlage 2, Basel
Curator: Andres Pardey

Wim Delvoye in Basel

In Switzerland’s first major retrospective of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye at the Museum Tinguely tradition clashes with utopia, and craftsmanship with high-tech.

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