Atelier Van Lieshout

Slave City Urban Plan

2005

Ink on paper
563 cm x 235 cm

SlaveCity can be described as a sinister utopian project which is very rational, efficient and profitable (7,8 billion euro net profit per year).

Values, ethics, esthetics, moral, food, energy, economics, organization, management and market are turned upside-down, mixed and reformulated and designed into a town of 200.000 inhabitants, an up-to-date concentration camp set up according to the latest technology and management insights. The inhabitants (which are called participants) work 7 hours a day in call-centre office jobs, such as customers service, ITC, telemarketing and computer programming. After that, they work 7 hours in the fields or in workshops, in order to keep SlaveCity running, before being allowed three hours of relaxation and seven hours of sleep. The efficiency of the participants is monitored accurately and appropriate measures are taken if it drops under a set level.

Slave City Urban Plan (2005) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘What is Our Home?’, IVAM, Valencia (ES), 2020 – 2021

Location: Collection of Maxxi Museum, Rome (IT)

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