Wim Delvoye has just said goodbye to the monographic exhibition dedicated to him by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, in Brussels, in a risky proposal in which the subversive sculptural work of the artist lived together with the classical pieces of the museum's collection.

Wim Delvoye, installation of “Tabriz”, “Shahreza”, “Arak”, “Karaj”, “Khermanshah” and “Bidjar”, 2010-2016, in the showroom with “Le martyre de Saint Liévin” by Rubens at the background. Photo from: El Gran Otro, by Por Patricia Lago L. and Maximiliano Turri

If something is evident in Delvoye's work, it is his desire to stir consciousness and offer an openly critical reading of our globalised environment. It is not difficult to notice a message that mocks the models established in our society with an ironic language that portrays the hypocrisy of our time. The intentional use of contemporary referents in seemingly absurd or improper contexts produces a clash of ideas that opens the door to reflection. Between disgust and complicity, the spectators of their work face a transgressive discourse that rarely leaves them indifferent.

Wim Delvoye, “Truck Tyre”, 2017. © Courtesy Wim Delvoye / photo: Studio Delvoye, via RMFAB

Another factor that favours the impact of his speech is the choice of formats. Delvoye is not satisfied with small pieces but he goes big, with sculptures and installations that achieve a great presence in space. In this way, the assembly of the exhibitions manages to break the stillness of the rooms and generate a true dialogue between the past and the future. The author, already a veteran in these proposals organised in classical museums, such as the Louvre or the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, appreciates the opportunity to make contemporary and historical art coexist because it attracts an audience that to some extent has already lost interest in the old. Thus, the exhibition "Sculptures" of Brussels is located in the middle of the halls and exhibition galleries under the watchful eye of the characters of Rubens, arranged in the walls painted in salmon and aquamarine.

Wim Delvoye, “Cloaca New and Improved”, 2001. © Courtesy Wim Delvoye / photo: Studio Delvoye, via sculpturemagazine.art

Delvoye's extensive work also plays with the variety of disciplines and techniques, in addition to the use of classicism and references taken from the entire history of art. The result is disturbing. Long ago he had presented a controversial sculpture in which a Christ was twisted on himself like a pretzel and exposed in front of an oil painting that represented the burial of Jesus Christ. The same can be said of his piece "Cloaca New and Improved", or simply "Cloaca", introduced by a massive sign with this word that emulates the Ford logo, in which it represents, as an assembly line with glass containers and laboratory material, a complete digestive process whose result is as expected: faeces served in a huge beaker. We also highlight the installation "Cabinet", a set of ceramic pieces that represent gas bottles and circular saw blades painted in blue with the traditional Delf style and arranged in a wooden display cabinet handmade in Indonesia. This work seeks to raise awareness about the effects of the colonial occupation and its impact on the course of history, and how this concept is treated forces us to rethink what we see to go beyond the visible.

Wim Delvoye, “Untitled (Fortnite 01)”, 2019. © Courtesy Wim Delvoye / photo: Studio Delvoye, via RMFAB

With an exquisite execution, Delvoye dares with numerous materials that gradually surrender to the impulse of his ideas. Be it metal, or stone, the whole of his work is eclectic and difficult to classify. Perhaps we could group it under a common guiding thread that is the desire to question the status quo of things, the supposed benefits of this galloping modernity that alienates us and traps us, but also gives us the freedom to carry out projects such as the ones this author poses, and make them live with the past of art. We live in a disturbing world. Thanks, Delvoye.

The circle as critical device and the marker as contemporary catalyst

POSCA, the Japanese brand of water-based paint markers, has established itself since the 1980s as a central instrument within contemporary artistic practices associated with urban art, illustration, graphic design, and interdisciplinary experimentation. Its opaque, highly pigmented, fast-drying formula—compatible with surfaces as diverse as paper, wood, metal, glass, and textiles—has enabled a technical expansion that extends beyond the traditional studio, engaging public space, objects, and installation practices alike.

In this context, POSCA operates as more than a working tool; it functions as a material infrastructure for contemporary creation. It is a technical device that enables immediacy of gesture without sacrificing chromatic density or formal precision. Its versatility has contributed to the democratization of languages historically associated with painting, fostering a more horizontal circulation between professional and amateur practices.

This expanded dimension of the medium finds a particularly compelling conceptual framework in The Rolling Collection, a traveling exhibition curated by ADDA Gallery. The project proposes a collective investigation of the circular format, understood not merely as a formal container but as a symbolic structure and a field of spatial tension.

Historically, the circle has operated as a figure of totality, continuity, and return. Within the framework of The Rolling Collection, the circular format shifts away from its classical symbolic charge toward an experimental dimension, becoming a support that challenges the hegemonic rectangular frontality of the Western pictorial tradition. The absence of angles demands a reconsideration of composition, balance, and directional flow.

Rather than functioning as a simple formal constraint, this condition generates a specific economy of visual decisions. The curved edge intensifies the relationship between center and periphery, dissolves internal hierarchies, and activates both centrifugal and centripetal dynamics. The resulting body of work interrogates the very processes through which images are constructed.

Following its 2025 tour through Barcelona, Ibiza, Paris, London, and Tokyo, a selection of the exhibition is presented at Art Madrid, reinforcing its international scope and its adaptability to diverse cultural contexts. The proposal for Art Madrid’26 brings together artists whose practices unfold at the intersection of urban art, contemporary illustration, and hybrid methodologies: Honet, Yu Maeda, Nicolas Villamizar, Fafi, Yoshi, and Cachetejack.

While their visual languages vary—ranging from graphic and narrative approaches to chromatic explorations charged with gestural intensity—the curatorial framework establishes a shared axis: a free, experimental, and distinctly color-driven attitude. In this sense, color functions as a conceptual structure that articulates the works while simultaneously connecting them to the specific materiality of POSCA.

The marker’s inherent chromatic vibrancy engages in dialogue with the formal assertiveness of the circle, generating surfaces in which saturation and contrast take center stage. The tool thus becomes embedded within the exhibition discourse, operating as a coherent extension of the participating artists’ aesthetic vocabularies.

One of the project’s most significant dimensions is the active incorporation of the public. Within the exhibition space—activated by POSCA during Art Madrid’26—visitors will be invited to intervene on circular supports installed on the wall using POSCA markers, thereby symbolically integrating themselves into The Rolling Collection during its presentation in Madrid.

This strategy introduces a relational dimension that destabilizes the notion of the closed artwork. Authorship becomes decentralized, and the exhibition space transforms into a dynamic surface for the accumulation of gestures. From a theoretical standpoint, the project may be understood as aligning with participatory practices that, without compromising formal coherence, open the artistic dispositif to contingency and multiplicity.

The selection of POSCA as the instrument for this collective intervention is deliberate. Its ease of use, line control, and compatibility with multiple surfaces ensure an accessible experience without diminishing the visual potency of the outcome. In this way, the marker operates as a mediator between professional practice and spontaneous experimentation, dissolving technical hierarchies.

The title itself, The Rolling Collection, suggests a collection in motion—unfixed to a single space or definitive configuration. Its itinerant nature, combined with the incorporation of local interventions, transforms the project into an organism in continuous evolution. Within this framework, POSCA positions itself as a material catalyst for a transnational creative community. Long associated with urban scenes and emerging practices, the brand reinforces its identity as an ally of open, experimental, and collaborative processes.

POSCA x The Rolling Collection should not be understood merely as a collaboration between a company and a curatorial initiative; rather, it constitutes a strategic convergence of tool, discourse, and community. The project proposes a reflection on format, the global circulation of contemporary art, and the expansion of authorship, while POSCA provides the technical infrastructure that makes both individual works and collective experience possible.