Forget Banksy! The title of World's Most Badass Artist belongs to a Belgian conceptual artist named Wim Delvoye.

Wim's quite famous for his unconventional art, many of which seem innocuous at a glance but contains something unexpected upon closer inspection. Others, like Cloaca and the gothic heavy machinery laser-cut sculptures shown below are amazing technical tour-de-force pieces.

Whether these art shock you or whether you think that these are art to begin with, there's no denying that Wim's work are quite unique!

Here are some of the most intriguing art of Wim Delvoye:

Cloaca, the Poo Machine

Cloaca is probably Wim Delvoye's most famous art installation. In 2000, he put together a complex machinery at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, Belgium. The machine's sole job is to simulate "digestion" and produce poo. Yep, you read that right.

Wim's Cloaca machine (cloaca is a zoological term for the posterior opening of animals) was fed meals twice a day. Then, viewers can follow the food as it makes its way through a series of glass containers (in the original set up as shown above), which represent the various stages of digestion. At the end of the tract, the machine produces feces, which are then vacuum-packed and sold in translucent boxes:

Cloaca has its own website, where you can find out more about the art project: Link | More on Cloaca at Wim's website (don't miss the Super Cloaca!)

Mosaic

Continuing in his obsession with poo, here are Wim's 1990 art exhibit, titled Mosaic. The artwork consists of the complex arrangement of printed ceramic tiles into symmetrical and very ornate patterns.

Only after a closer inspection would the viewers realize that on each tile are two images of the Wim's own turd!

Marble Floors

Again with the what-is-it-really-made-from angle, here's Wim's artwork Marble Floors at the Olga Korper Gallery. If you look closely, the floor is made with ... salami slices! (Actually, just printed pictures of salami - it'll be gross in just a few days if he had made it from real sliced meats)

Links: Olga Korper Gallery [Flash, click on delvoye] | More pics on Wim's own website (under "Marble Floors")

Anal Kisses

Here's a classic Wim art piece: with just a lipstick and a bunch of hotel stationery, Wim could probably fill an art and/or psychology student's master thesis with crazy thinking about Freud, his mother, and other mumbo jumbo. Why? Well, suffice it to say that those, erhm, aren't his lip prints ...

Gothic Laser-Cut Heavy Machinery Sculptures



Photo: David Edgar [wikipedia]



Photo: yw_krcf [Flickr]

Now this is awesome: a series of gothic "lace" sculpture of heavy machineries, done with laser-cut COR-TEN (or weathering) steel.

Tattooed Pigs



Photo: If It's Hip, It's Here

Wim is a vegetarian, but he has a pig/art farm outside of Beijing in China. He's not thinking of bacon, however - Wim has other plans for his swine: he tattoos them! (He said that the pigs have better, longer lives than those raised for food).

Here's the YouTube clip of Wim tattooing pigs:

Some of his most famous tattooed pigs:



That's Louis, the pig tattooed with ... you guessed it, Louis Vuitton logos!



"Sebastien" (2006): Tattooed pig skin by Wim Delvoye

Photo: If It's Hip, It's Here