Wim Delvoye

© Photo credit：Tony Metaxas

© Photo credit：Tony Metaxas

In his life-size replicas of a flatbed trailer and a cement truck, Wim Delvoye juxtaposes medieval craftsmanship with machine-age technology. This massive sculpture is made of corten steel and perforated with Gothic filigree. Gothic architecture looms large in the occidental cultural imagination. Its breathtaking verticality was symbolic of a dazzling architectural feat, achieved one stone at a time by generations of workers and artisans. These days, heavy machinery such as excavators, bulldozers and cranes can accomplish almost overnight what once took decades. The artist transforms familiar icons of current urban productivity into ornate, non-utilitarian objects as homage to two far-flung eras of human invention. This artwork, which refers both to technical virtuosity and the modern way of building, directly reflects the extraordinary construction site of World Expo that has taken shape in just a few months and reflects the way that Chinese modernity relies on tradition and the past.

Wim Delvoye

Born in 1965 in Wervik, Belgium.
Lives and works in Ghent, Belgium and London, UK.

The internationally renowned artist Wim Delvoye produces series of sculptures and other works in which strictly utilitarian or mass produced phenomena have been exquisitely modified or transformed. Delvoye's projects are produced by some of the world's finest craftsmen and artisans, using skills that have been developed over centuries, often for the purposes of religious or spiritual decoration.

Recent solo shows:
2010: Wim Delvoye: Drawings & Models, MAMAC, Nice, France; Knocking on Heaven's Door, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium. 2009: Wim Delvoye: Torre, Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; Cloaca N°5, Galerie de l'UQAM, Montréal, Canada. 2008: Sex-Rays, Galerie Guy Bartschi, Geneva, Switzerland; Wim Delvoye, Ernst Museum (Mucsarnok Nkft), Budapest, Hungary;Cloaca N°5, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada; Wim Delvoye, Diehl + gallery One, Moscow, Russia; Wim Delvoye, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels.