The Louvre has invited Wim Delvoye to intervene at various locations within the museum and nearby: under the Pyramid, in the Napoleon III apartments, in the Gothic galleries of the Department of Decorative Arts, and in the Tuileries gardens.
Wim Delvoye’s work is full of subversive irony, and compelling provocations. The Belgian artist creates connections between objects, contradictory ideas and techniques. His pieces conjure up an imaginary world in which anything is possible, with works that are rooted in the subversive and ironic re-interpretation of older styles, mainly Gothic and Baroque. His sculpture for the famous spot under the pyramid is a huge Gothic corkscrew-shaped tower made of stainless steel, titled “Suppo”.
Mercedes-Benz is the main sponsor of the annually alternating exhibitions of contemporary sculpture beneath the Louvre’s world-famous glass pyramid. Wim Delvoye is the second artist, after Tony Cragg in 2011, to create a new, monumental sculpture to be installed at the central column supporting the Pyramid’s entry platform. “Suppo” will be on view until December 2012. Another imposing Corten steel sculpture will take up residence in the Tuileries in July and remain at this venue through the autumn, when it will be joined by other works featured in FIAC’s outdoor sculpture exhibition.
Until June 16, Galerie Perrotin hosts “Rorschach”, a solo show by Wim Delvoye, featuring other new works echoing some of the same preoccupations as those addressed in the “Au Louvre” exhibition.
On view until 17 September 2012 at the Louvre