Wim Delvoye

Belgian artist Wim Delvoye combines historical forms and craft traditions with contemporary technologies and social issues. His often provocative works move between opposites such as the sacred and the profane, tradition and innovation, or art and consumer culture. Through unexpected combinations, he transforms Rorschach inkblots into bronze sculptures or industrial cement trucks into intricate neo-Gothic constructions made from laser-cut steel. His works are held in major international collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Centre Pompidou, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Uffizi Galleries.

For Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg, Wim Delvoye created Bustelli Twisted in 2010, his first work for the manufactory. The starting point was Isabella and Octavio from Franz Anton Bustelli’s famous 18th-century Commedia dell’Arte series. Delvoye had the historic figures scanned in three dimensions and transformed them into twisted, dynamic forms using computer-aided design software. These digital designs were then translated into porcelain in Nymphenburg’s master workshops: the figures consist of numerous individually cast and partly hand-modelled elements, which are carefully assembled and retouched. Bustelli Twisted thus brings together one of Nymphenburg’s most important historic groups of figures with Delvoye’s characteristic exploration of digital technology, transformation and traditional craftsmanship.

• 
•