Explanation of the Properties of “Aesthetics of Ugliness” in Cloaca by Wim Delvoye

Delvoye, a Belgian artist, exhibits his varied works all over the world. Delvoye sometimes combines the elegance of decoration with smooth and polished surfaces resulting from industrial beauty and makes a magnificent set. The examples can be seen in loaders and heavy machines, which are decorated with the elaborated motifs of Gothic churches. He cuts stylized plant patterns on the tires of the heavy machines. Delvoye’s precise laser cuts produces objects without defects. In a collection of sausage, he makes geometric patterns and fills surfaces with them. The geometry of motifs with spiritual colors has a lot of appeals, but filling these patterns with physical sausages can cause sudden repulsion. This artist twists the metal statue of Christ and his cross, so that when we see the twisted statue, we can also see our own distorted image. The attraction of the polished metal and the repulsion of our distorted image are intertwined. The simultaneous attraction and repulsion twist the aesthetic appeal of the icons of Christ and carry itself to the endless Rococo desire for shining metals. But Cloaca (2000) is a device that produces turds. The problem of the research is this: What characteristics bring this work to the threshold of ugliness? Does ugliness have a negative value compared to beauty? In the following, we will study Cloaca to introduce the process of participation of this work in shaping the aesthetics of ugliness. According to the objectives of this research, so far, no paper has been written about Cloaca by Delvoye, nor has a wide and extensive commentary been devoted to it. The results show, and clarify these points: the human body has been considered as the focal point of contemporary art; the contemporary art studies the body itself through technology. The aid of technology brings out the internal process and transforms it into the machine. Cloaca has the anti-conceptual characteristic and fights against the domination of philosophical concepts.  Regarding the interaction of science and art, it disturbs the exploitative relationship between philosophy and art. In the form of neo-avantgarde, the institution has made art dependent on economic models, institutions, and capitalist advertisement. The value of Cloaca doesn`t depend on the special formal, artistic, and aesthetic (related to positive) features.  Its behavioral characteristics and reactions are metaphorically norm-breaking. Basically, the aesthetic features of Cloaca fluctuate between the two spectrums of beautiful and ugly. Cloaca's aesthetic characteristics include formless, shocking, artificial, soulless, boring, spectacular and contemplative, norm-breaking, and ambiguous, which include negative degrees and push it to the threshold of ugliness. As a result, according to this research, ugliness is not a disvalue and has an aesthetic significance. The research confirms  that ugliness and beauty are two maximum poles of the single scale of aesthetic value. The interpretation of the aesthetic features is the introduction of the dimensions of the work that enters something to the threshold of ugliness, but it is worth investing for capitalism.