27 March - 23 May, 2004

Wim Delvoye's work challenges traditional conventions of taste. In his groundbreaking work entitled Cloaca, a functional kinetic installation that Delvoye has been developing since the mid-1990s, the proletarian, democratic aspect of his work cannot be ignored. The guiding principle of this machine is to duplicate the human digestive system, without calling on human characteristics. The various compartments of the digestive system (mouth-stomach-pancreas-intestines-anus) are replicated by means of separate recipients, each with its specific, unique chemical composition of enzymes, thus creating an intestinal microclimate of bacterial flora. The work requires constant care (an aspect that Delvoye also had to deal with in an earlier project that involved tattooing live pigs), as if an actual human being were present. Cloaca can thus be seen as a cyborg, a hybrid form between man and machine that symbolises the essential, biological human condition: eating and being eaten.

That Cloaca was unveiled in the year 2000 is no accident: the machine not only brings to a close an artistic period marked by Duchamp or Manzoni, but it points to the beginning of a new era for mankind, that of biotechnology. Cloaca is like a laboratory, with its assembly line of stainless steel elements, glass flasks with food in various stages of digestion (kept constantly at body temperature), peristaltic pumps that transfer the concoction via silicone intestines and an internal electrical system that controls the software of the machine. In this laboratory, nature is simulated and life created: thus the machine acquires godly qualities, the feeding is an offering, and Cloaca (as can be gauged arrestingly from the stairway that must be climbed to feed its mouth) becomes a kind of altar. Despite all its technological properties, Cloaca perhaps belongs to the tradition of still life painting, where food serves to remind us of our own mortality. As a memento mori, Cloaca incorporates life and death, because without care, the machine will die. Delvoye puts food next to shit, life next to death. Cloaca evokes humans in all their biological aspects; it is, however, a living being without purpose, a work of art with "human needs."
Cloaca is pure materialism and consumerism and, as an art object, embodies capitalism in its purest form. Cloaca symbolises contemporary corporate power; the logo becomes a contemporary escutcheon. Cloaca therefore invites us to contemplate not only what life is about, where it begins and where it ends, but also draws, in one line, a parallel between the contemplation of the somatic, the abject, and the artistic.
On the other hand, Cloaca does not compel us to anything: the machine has no purpose, no sex, no opinion; Cloaca is a post-human icon, a sculpture onto which everyone can project his or her convictions: the Medium is the Message. Cloaca is a metaphor for our industrialised society. The artist is not really interested in the work of art "in itself," but in its development, evolution, and function. So the work of art becomes a business and vice versa.
In 2001 Delvoye developed a second version entitled Cloaca - New and Improved, which further investigates the intersection between art and technology. The first Cloaca was an experiment, an exploration of possibilities and limitations. Cloaca - New and Improved, on the other hand, embraces industrial automation: not only does the laboratory appearance make room for a more streamlined, clean production line, but the software is fully automated and a modem is installed so that the machine can be operated from a distance. As a result of all this, Cloaca - New and Improved operates more reliably as a whole and is more user-friendly.
Born in rural Flanders in 1965, Wim Delvoye lives and works in Ghent. He has had numerous one-person international exhibitions, including at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and MUHKA, Antwerp, and was a participating artist in the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) and Documenta IX (1992). The Power Plant's presentation of Delvoye's Cloaca - New & Improved, curated by Nancy Campbell, marks the first exhibition of this notable artist's work in Canada. The Power Plant gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap that helped to make this exhibition possible.