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Leigh Carmichael / MONA via Reuters
The installation "Cloaca Professional, 2010" by Belgium artist Wim Delvoye, which has been dubbed the "poo-machine" is shown on display at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Australia.
SYDNEY -- Smelling excrement may not be everyone's idea of fun, but for those who like to push the boundaries, Australia's most controversial new museum may be just what they are looking for.
Dubbed "the subversive adult Disneyland", the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is located in Tasmania and features around 400 works of art from Egyptian mummies to Young British Artists including Chris Ofili and Jenny Saville.
But the most talked-about piece is the Cloaca Professional, labeled the "poo-machine." It was built by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye to mimic the actions of the human digestive system.
A series of glass receptacles hang in a row with the machine being "fed" twice a day on one end. The food is ground up "naturally," the way it is in the human body, and the device produces feces on the clock at 2 p.m. at the other end.
The smell is so powerful that not many visitors can take it.
"It put me off because of the overwhelming assault on the senses," said Diane Malnic, a Sydney-based accountant.
'Vomit room'
Yet this was her second visit in five months, following a family holiday in Tasmania earlier in the year. This time, she flew without her husband and children just to have another look at the collection, interested in Delvoye's other pieces.
She took great care to avoid the "smelly" parts and still talked vividly about the "vomit room" which was part of an earlier exhibit no longer on display.
"I wouldn't go back to see them," she said, laughing.
The Cloaca is part of a series of at least five similar machines built by the artist, another of which will soon be exhibited at the Louvre. It is the most hated piece in the museum but also the most visited.
The museum, which opened in January 2011, is owned by eccentric and philanthropist David Walsh, who made his fortune as a professional gambler, and features one of the largest private art collections in the world with an estimated value of around $100 million.
Leigh Carmichael / MONA via Reuters
The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Australia, features around 400 works of art from Egyptian mummies to Young British Artists including Chris Ofili and Jenny Saville.
Its motto is to shock, offend, inform and entertain.
"It definitely challenges your interpretation of what art is," said Malnic.
Elephant dung
Pieces include Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin Mary, which features elephant dung and porn-magazine cutouts of genitals. It caused controversy in 1996, with then-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani reportedly describing Ofili's work as "sick".
Another much-talked-about piece is the Matrix by Jenny Saville, a full-frontal large painting of a naked transgender man with his modified genitals exposed.
"It's confronting," said Margarita Silva, a Melbourne-based dentist making during her third trip to the MONA.
Detractors argue that some of the pieces don't belong to a museum, which is also what Malnic initially thought. But upon reflection, she said the Cloaca machine opened her mind and argued that perhaps it was the future of art.
For Silva, her favorites were a soundproof room of 30 Madonna fans who were individually filmed singing a capella the artist's Immaculate Collection album. The other was a waterfall with droplets spelling out a series of words.
Keeping with the MONA's sensibility, none of its art work is grouped or chronological, leaving viewers to walk at random.
"Overall, it's a fantastic experience," said Silva.
The museum charges A$20 ($20) for entry and has drawn around 389,000 visitors in its first year.
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Leave a Comment:
why would anybody visit this crapper of a place.
My name for people wanting to visit is Chit Heads
This goes beyound comment. I can't belive it.
I can understand the concept, in the art community, of understanding the workings of the mind of the artist and the power of art to move the thoughts and emotions of viewers but I really don't want to see into the minds of the very disturbed individuals minds of these artists. "Excrement Art" is just plane gross.
For once - I am speechless!
I think I will open up my septic tank lid and have people come and look at the art that is being formed in there and take in all that wonderful oder. I might even charge money. I hope you people think I am being sarcastic. Some people do that things seriously sometimes. Also you don't need to open up a cesspool to know that it sinks.
This shows that many people are strongly attracted to @!$%# and you wonder how those politicians got into office.
Needs more corn. Texture is all important.
See, and all the degenerates from other countries think the USA is is depraved.
Hmmm ... should we visit the vomit room or the poo room?? Vomit or poo? Vomit or poo? Oh, hell, let's just go home and wait for them to build a urine room.
I may not know good art.
But I know what I hate.
The machine that mimics the human digestive system my be an interesting scientific study though. How often is it that someone is able to make an artificial digestive system that comes close to having the same functions as an organic digestive system? Sure there are several important features missing, like a nutrient absorption system, but it would still be an interesting study for medical doctors.
I'll admit to only scanning the article so I didn't catch if any public money was
usedwasted on this utter nonsense. For a change I don't have to hang my head in shame and embarrassment for the U.S. Why would anyone want to see/smell this? I can think of 2 sayings that apply here, "a fool and his money are soon parted", and "if you build it, they will come".Sigh...
1) The article discusses three exhibits in a museum that professes to have "one of the largest private art collections in the world with an estimated value of around $100 million." I'm sure there are less-sensational exhibits that weren't considered "newsworthy" enough when ever headline clicked on is money in someone's pocket.
2) Apparently 389,000 people had no problem forking over 20 bucks apiece to go have a look, and there are apparently some repeat customers as well.
3) How is this any different from the "freak shows" we used to have at the carnival, going to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, or watching reality TV?
I realize that people get a misplaced sense of self-worth by standing in judgement of other people, but really y'all need to freaking get over it and realize not everyone lives the life you do, and there's actually nothing wrong with that either. Half of you probably couldn't be pried away from your television sets to go to any museum even if there was a trial of twenties on the floor and a plate of donuts at the center of the exhibits. Viva la diference.
Folks are paying money to see this?
give me $10.00 each they can whatch me take a dump.
I won't pay a cent more than $5.00.
cr ap....I've only got 4 bucks and some change, I guess I'll have to PASS
P.T. Barnum got it right about fools. This is absolute proof...soon to be billionaire in the making.
Actually, the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute." is attributed (wrongly) to P.T. Barnum. It doesn't matter who said it though. Gamblers have been making a good living for centuries, beecause it is true. David Walsh just figured out a way to fleece them by the thousands instead of only a table full at a time.
"The house doesn't beat the player. It just gives him the opportunity to beat himself." --Nick the Greek
"Suckers have no business with money anyway." --Canada Bill Jones
It's a real-life GOOBY PLS!!!
We've got enough real **** in this world without people faking it.
An Egyptian mummy is a "work of art"?? WTF???
Compared to a crap taking machine, yes it is.
Really????
i've ALWAYS contended that you can sell @!$%# smell if its packaged right! why can't that we do that with the orgasm! no! wait...i just did that for free. by myself!
Hay Gooby! Wan to see poo xhibt in mooseum? - k Dolan - Dolan, dis place smel like reel poo... - GOOBY PLS!
The earth is covered in human excrement...it's even in our drinking water...why would someone want to create more???
The United States has its own "poo" machine. It is called the US Congress.
This display is a complete insult to the world of art and culture.
Couldn't they just have put a baby on display????? I haven't seen one yet that doesn't make an awesome "POO MACHINE"...........
With most people just barely making ends meet these days there are others like Walsh getting more wealthy with an industry that seems to be worthless. What a world we live in.
I just made some of my own "art" in the toilet. Bidding starts at $5. Any takers?
867-5309?
It may be a complete insult to the world of art but so far as culture is concerned, poo can be very useful in growing any number of microbes. Microbial may best describe the mental faculties of those who choose to view such displays, especially if they believe it somehow advances our culture or expands our view of what constitutes art.
Take a picture of dog poop. Title it something like "Le Poo Puant" put it on display then charge people to come look at it. After you die the photo "Le Poo Puant" will sell for millions and people will say you were an artistic genius! Those who inherited your estate will actually believe it.
WOW!
My brain shut down for a few moments when I read the part in the article about how someone thought a poop machine was the "future of art."
I'm starting to feel really concerned about humanity right now.
Just my 2 cents (A2 cents) this whole article stinks.
If this is the future of art, give me the past!
"...produces feces on the clock at 2 p.m...."
Ahhh,...to be so regular.
"Wim,...could you just, like, not feed it for one day?"
"In other news, the janitor at the Museum of Old and New Art sat up a fan instead of a garbage can at the end of the "Cloaca Professional". Yes,....it hit the fan and yes it was his last day." :P
"All right! !@#! Who fed the "Cloaca" Taco Bell?!"
I think the whole idea stinks.
This type of art is the Art of Provoking a Response; not to be confused with anything hanging in
the Louvre. 'Art' comes in many forms and on many levels. That being said, I still hate it. It's stupid and I'm grew bored reading about it.
Anyone who thinks this is art, has what this machine creates for a brain!
People pay for that?
I bet most people will not give a crap.
Wtf? What is wrong with some people?
Who's worse. The Belgium artist or the Tasmanians who let him do it.