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American Morning
Artist Recreates Human Digestive System
Aired January 28, 2002 - 08:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Meals with being served twice daily at a New York city museum, but the food's not for visitors, it's for the artwork.
CNN's Jeanne Moos serves up this story of art that chews, swallows, and digests.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the menu, sauteed salmon served on a bed of fennel (ph) and mushrooms...
(on camera): Seems a little heavy for breakfast.
(voice-over): Not if it's breakfast for one, and the one happens to be a machine.
(on camera): Cleaned its plate.
(voice-over): It's a lot more appetizing than adding oil. It's name is Cloaca, Latin for sewer, and its Belgian creator is modest about what it does.
WIM DELVOYE, ARTIST: It eats and it excretes. This is all what it does.
MOOS: Wim Delvoye has created a 33-foot machine that simulates the human digestive system. Food and water go into a funnel that leads to a garbage disposal. Six glass chambers serve as Cloaca's organs.
DELVOYE: And these are the large intestines.
MOOS: The same enzymes, bacteria, and chemicals that aid human digestion are at work here.
DELVOYE: Forcing people to take care of an art piece, this is like the main message of Cloaca.
MOOS: The temperature is kept close to human temperature, a computer controls the works.
DELVOYE: This is the brain, this is the brain.
MOOS: At its opening at New York's new Museum of Contemporary Art, New Yorkers tried to digest Cloaca.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's elegant and stunning and weird.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is really creative, to make us think about what's going on inside our bodies, you know, when we're eating.
MOOS: The artist doesn't mind folks laughing. After all, this is a guy who once tattooed pigs. A blue light comes on when Cloaca gets hungry. It's fed twice a day. Upscale restaurants supply the food.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Monk fish with the garden vegetables.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would figure the machine is eating better than we are.
MOOS: Normally, Cloaca drinks water. But for the opening, what the heck, have a beer.
DELVOYE: It's not good for the machine if it drinks too much alcohol. It's still a complete mystery for me how we survive parties.
MOOS: Cloaca even survived french fries. This is a new and improved version of a machine Wim first displayed in Belgium.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually, the machine, the first one, exploded.
MOOS: Too much gas caused one of the containers to burst.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm a doctor, and I think it's pretty anatomically correct, although imaginative.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, does it get Maalox? That's all I want to know.
MOOS: We tried Pepto-Bismol, but they wouldn't let us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It smells quite bad.
MOOS: After all, Cloaca does need to eliminate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could do that.
MOOS: A small crowd gathered at the appointed hour. There was a gasp, when less was eliminated than expected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cloaca's adjustment to the American diet has been a little bit gradual.
MOOS: Maybe Pepto-Bismol wasn't such an abysmal idea.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: I love the fact that people are sitting there drinking and eating watching that thing.
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