Atelier Van Lieshout, Mike Bouchet, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson and Riley Harmon contribute to the exhibition What’s wrong with this picture?. This exhibition and its complementary programme, organised by AVL Mundo, will be open from Friday to Sunday from the 7th until the 23rd of September.

What’s wrong with this picture? confronts the public with works that contain dark humour, ask urgent questions and present a bleak view on reality. Atelier Van Lieshout shows works from the SlaveCity project about perceived and mouldable social normalcy, as they reconsider the concept of time, the prospects for society and the role of mankind therein. Visitors are forced to think about what we take for granted and to ask themselves, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

25 April 2018 – 2 December 2018

Ferrotopia, the latest art installation by Atelier Van Lieshout, opening at the NDSM-werf on Wednesday 25th April at 19:00h, is an ode to steel and bygone industries that explores new forms of manufacturing in a “circular economy”. 

Ferrotopia is a Gesamkunstwerk – a large-scale public project made up of four buildings: Domestikator, Drop Hammer House, Happy Industry and Refectory. Its totem is the iconic Domestikator, a monumental structure that depicts humankind’s domination of nature. Domestikator drew international attention as a hub for the Ruhr Triennial, but its fame exploded with the controversy it caused when the work was invited to be exhibited outside the Louvre, was censored and then adopted by the Centre Pompidou. The work was retrofitted as a pavilion for freedom of expression, hosting a series of screenings, discussions and international debate. In Amsterdam, Domestikator will be joined by the atmospheric Refectory, the Happy Industry Foundry – a functioning metal workshop, and the purpose-built Drop Hammer House, created specifically for the NDSM to represent destruction, recycling and production in a circular economy.

On the 1st February, the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London will launch a solo-exhibition with functional sculptures by Atelier Van Lieshout. These works, a series of various lamps, are part of the CryptoFuturism series.

“Lust for Life Lamps is about enjoying life and embracing every part of it. Whether it is life, death, dancing, getting old, contemplating or reproducing, all of those things are essential parts of human life. And of course, it is about having lust all your life.”

– Joep van Lieshout

Atelier Van Lieshout’s first video work Cage is currently on display as part of the exhibition PUNK+DANS+KUNST (Punk, dance and art) at SCHUNCK*. The exhibition presents the subversive creativity and the physical, ironic language used in Hail reflected in the work of contemporaries of Michael Clark and Charles Atlas’s day, as well as among modern-day artists active in visual art and dance, music and pop culture, with their rebellious expressions. Some of the angry movements are timeless. Guest curator and choreographer Karin Post has put together a modern-day collage of movement, image and sound, which traces the influence of punk sub-culture and its ‘angry movements’ in dance and visual art.

Atelier Van Lieshout is proud to be part of the opening exhibition of the new Centro Arte e Scienze Golinelli in Bologna, Italy. The exhibition, with the title Imprevedibili, essere pronti per il futuro senza sapere come sara (Unforeseable, being ready for the future without knowing what it will be like), shows a selection of works which all reflect on a possible future, including Atelier van Lieshout’s Cow of the Future and Food Reaktor.

For aditional information, please see the website of the Fondazione Golinelli

Atelier Van Lieshout, Carpenters Workshop Gallery and FIAC are proud to present Domestikator at the Centre Pompidou!

Please join us for the opening event on Thursday the 19th October:

6PM – 9PM: reception and cocktail
7 PM: artist talk by Joep van Lieshout
9PM – 11PM: Cocktail reception at Carpenters Workshop Gallery, 54 rue de la Verrerie 75004

The artwork will host an ongoing series of impromptu discussions, performances and screenings. This Salon will be inaugurated with a discussion between friends and artists Xavier Veilhan and Joep van Lieshout, on Thursday 19th October at 11 AM

After the Musée du Louvre decided the sculpture was too provocative for the Jardin de Tuilleries, the artwork will now be installed at the square next to the Fontaine Stravinsky.

Joep van Lieshout: “I’m very pleased that the Centre Pompidou was able to see beyond the sensationalized interpretations of this work, and offered to present it during FIAC. By exhibiting this work, the institution is not only allowing the public to properly experience its artistic and intrinsic values, but it also opens up a broader discussion about the current challenges and complexities in the relationships between artists, institutions, public, and press – and their subsequent impact on artistic freedom.
Domestikator was always intended to be a catalyst for thought, as it addresses the very serious issue of how humans employ technology – with ingenuity, creativity, sophistication and persistence – to change the world into a “better” place, often domesticating it in the process. In order to push the boundaries of human experience and longevity, we have developed new technologies, like artificial intelligence, genetic manipulation, robotics and industrial farming, which push our ethical borders, without any real understanding of the long term consequences.
I am pleased that visitors to the Pompidou will have the opportunity to experience this work and hope that it generates questions and dialogue around the complexity of the issue of domestication – particularly its inherent hypocrisy, and the disconcerting fact that we are still without any real policy or regulation to govern this increasingly intrepid behavior.
Now, in addition to these meanings, the installation has inadvertently become a catalyst for a conversation about the freedom of expression, which is an urgent topic today. I’d like to express my sincerest gratitude to FIAC, Centre Pompidou, Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery, the city of Paris and my studio team for making this installation possible, and to the public who took to various platforms to voice their opposition to its censorship. I’m truly grateful for everyone’s support.”

A public program will take place around the Domestikator, please check this site or facebook for regular updates!

A solo exhibition by Joep van Lieshout, Furnification features the results of the artist’s recent sculptural experiments that that form part of the series, CryptoFururism. By revisiting the Italian Futurists, the series explores resonances with emerging fascist tendencies today, revealing the interplay between utopia and destruction. In Furnification, van Lieshout not only pushes the limits of materials, but also questions civilization itself.

More information can be found on the gallery website

On August 27, 2017 the first edition of ART Break will take place. This festival will transform the beach of Hoek van Holland into a celebration of art and coast. With ART Break Hoek van Holland finally has its own festival. From an art installation, classical music to a live painting performance and a treasure hunt through the Atlantik Wall, ART Break is for everyone!

The initiators of the festival, the entrepreneurs of the Rechtestraat, want to show how special Hoek van Holland is and how much culture this beach town has to offer. ‘’Hoek van Holland has six museums and is a place where a lot of Rotterdam-based artist take their summer break, but a lot of people aren’t aware of this’’, says Freek Ruigrok of DeSurfschool.nl, one of the entrepreneurs.

The eye catcher of ART Break will be Atelier Van Lieshout’s Bikinibar laying on the beach! The Bikinibar was created in 2006 as a place where people can withdraw from the busy beach life or bad weather. But it is only now that she can finally lay on the destination where she was intended for: the white sands of Hoek van Holland.

The festival takes place on Sunday the 27th of August 2017 and starts at 10 in the morning until 6 in the evening. The programme offers a wide range of activities for visitors of all ages such as surfing lessons for children, a hip-hop workshop, but also various concerts and a live painting performance by Solko Schalm, the unofficial port painter of Rotterdam. The festival can be visited free of charge. Hope to see you there!

Sunday August 27
10 am – 6 pm
Hoek van Holland – Rechtestraat
Free entry

July 14 will see the opening of Façade 2017, where you can see Cage (2017) by Atelier Van Lieshout. Huis presents the audience with a deconstructed, distorted cage; a disfigured prison that symbolizes the human longing for freedom.

In addition, Atelier van Lieshout captured the deconstructive process of Huis in collaboration with filmmaker Sonia Herman Dolz. The straight-edged cage was pushed apart with the use of heavy, self-made machines – i.e. a large drop hammer and hydraulic press with pressure. This film will be on display at CBK Zeeland, Middelburg.

Façade 2017 will run from July 14th until November 5^th 2017

For more information about the locations and other artworks on display please see the CBK Zeeland website:
http://www.facade2017.nl/

19 May 2017 – 17 September 2017

Visitors and residents of Amsterdam are once again welcome to visit ARTZUID, this time for it’s 5^th edition. Presented as a 5km art route you are guided past 60 monumental art works from Dutch and International abstract artists. The outdoor exhibition is being brought to you by Rudi Fuchs, art historian and former director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

With a duration of 4 months and free entry, visitors can also partake in one of the daily guided tours or guest lectures in the surrounding hotels and museums.

For more information and locations please visit the ARTZUID website.

The 22nd of April 2017 will see the opening of Poly Pluto Pluri at Galería OMR, the first solo exhibition of Atelier Van Lieshout in Mexico.

–        Poly derives from πολύς, ancient Greek for many, much

–        Pluto derives from πλουτος, ancient Greek for wealth

–        Pluri means several, many in Latin

Roughly translated as ´more more more´, Poly Pluto Pluri presents a selection of the work of Atelier Van Lieshout, offering an overview of artist Joep van Lieshout´s practice from the early 1990’s until the present day. Fuelled by Van Lieshout´s fascination with ´man and machine´, Poly Pluto Pluri charts the development of new technologies congruent to the advancement of humanity, with all of its successes and more notably, its failures.

We’re happy to announce that the artwork Pulse has been slected for the manifestation Licht 2017 in Graz, Austria. The work will be on display on the Kapistran-Pieller-Platz, opposite to the Kunsthaus Graz, from the 21st of April until the 4th of June.

Pulse is an interactive installation which aims to engage the inhabitants of Graz and to be at the heart of the community, expressing the pulse, the life of the city. The artwork is as a beacon, sending out lightsignals. These lightsignals will ‘beat’ to the same ‘rhytym’ as the pulse of a human heart. Every time a child is born in the Graz – which is approximately 11 times a day – the pulse and the intensity of the light will become stronger.
With this artwork, Atelier Van Lieshout wants to create a poetic collective moment for the citizens of Graz. Every time Pulse’s light intensifies, the artwork will celebrate the beginning of a human life, a new member of the community added. The artwork will enhance the existing sense of community, both by creating a collective experience and by serving as a physical landmark.

For more information about the work and the manifestation Licht 2017, please check the website of the KIÖR – Kunst in Offentlichen Raum Steiermark

We’re happy to announce our participation in the group show ‘Three Positions. Six Directions. Chapter 1: The Brutalist Ideal’, at Berlin’s König Galerie!

This show presents both impressions from and reactions to the architecture, the history, and the repurposing of the St Agnes church, which is currently in use as König Galerie’s main exhibition space – for an impression please check the gallery website

St. Agnes is a prime example of Brutalist architecture. More than style or fashion, Brutalism was a mentality and even a philosophy that inspired the simplicity, physical and ethical gravity, and economy that the church building embodies. It is with these same reductive ideas that the artworks presented in the show were born. Brutalism’s efficiency is reflected, for instance, in the artworks from Atelier Van Lieshout’s Slave City series, which extends these principles to a societal perspective. Added to this are recent works from the series Cryptofuturism, in which Atelier Van Lieshout researches the origin of matter, material and form.

The exhibition opens on Friday 20 January and runs until 12 February, at König Galerie, Alexandrinenstrasse 118 – 121, Berlin, Germany.

From the 2nd of December, the foyer of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag features the new artwork Henry, de Statistocraat by Atelier Van Lieshout. The eight-metre-high sculpture is designed to serve as a visitor information desk and is a humorous nod to the ‘rivalry’ between H.P. Berlage, architect of the Gemeentemuseum, and his Belgian contemporary and confrere Henry Van de Velde.

Distinctive Desk

The commission was prompted by the Gemeentemuseum’s desire for a visitor information desk worthy of a great public art gallery. It had to be different from the usual nondescript counters found in railway stations, airports, municipal offices, cinemas and shops. Museum director Benno Tempel: “In many museums, the entrance hall is essentially no different from the equivalent in any railway station or airport. That’s why we’ve brought in the enfant terrible of the Dutch art world to design something completely out of the ordinary. The result is a distinctive information desk that will leave visitors in no possible doubt that this is a space for the arts.”

Berlage and Van der Velde

Van Lieshout’s creation, Henry, the Statistocrat, makes playful reference to the work of Belgian artist, designer and architect Henry van de Velde – a founder of art nouveau, trailblazer for the later Bauhaus, and famous in the Netherlands primarily as the architect of the Kröller-Müller Museum.
In terms of artistic ideas, Berlage and Van de Velde had much in common: both sought to eliminate the distinction between art and design and to approach architecture as a Gesamtkunstwerk. At the same time, they were rivals who competed for major contracts – especially for museum buildings. Berlage also produced a design for the Kröller-Müller Museum (which was rejected), and with Henry, the Statistocrat Van de Velde has now placed his stamp on the Gemeentemuseum.

Photography: Gerrit Schreurs

Der Hausfreund is your most ambiguous friend. Like the postman, he comes around all too often, especially when you yourself are not around. A friend of different faces and functions – just like the multifaceted artworks of Dutch sculptor Joep van Lieshout. The eponymous exhibition at Galerie Krinzinger shows a selection of his recent artworks, which ask questions about destruction and renewal, coincidence and concept, minimalism and functionality.

Opening: November 24 , 2016

Duration: November 25 – January 14, 2017

Galerie Krinzinger, Seilerstätte 16, 1010 Vienna

www.galerie-krinzinger.at

Ruhrtriennale, Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, Germany
www.ruhrtriennale.de

11 June 2016 – 2 October 2016

As part of the Jheronimusch Bosch 500 manifestation, Atelier Van Lieshout will present the Gesamtkunstwerk SlaveCity (2005 – 2009), as well as recent works, as part of a large solo exhibition at Museum De Pont in Tilburg.

De Pont, Tilburg, the Netherlands
www.depont.nl

SlaveCity by Joep van Lieshout
Zuecca Project Space, Venice, Italy
26 May – 30 July 2016

Parallel with the Biennale di Venezia, Zuecca Project Space will be showcasing a selection of architectural models from SlaveCity
www.zueccaprojectspace.com

8 May – 24 July 2016

A survey of artists’ site-specific projects on the water, including Atelier Van Lieshouts Women on Waves container.

Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York

parrishart.org

Parc Tournay-Solvay, Brussles, Belgium
12 April – 11 Sept 2016

outdoor exhibition at the Espace Europeen pour la Sculpture, with new and recent work, curated by Natalie Kovacs
www.eesculpture.be

19 March 2016 – 7 May 2016

recent work by Atelier Van Lieshout at Jousse Entreprise, 6 rue Saint-Claude, Paris

Jousse Entreprise, Paris, France
www.jousse-entreprise.com

22.04.2016 – 10.07.2016

From Friday 22 April, TENT shows the plans and dreams of artists and architects for a new Rotterdam in the extensive group exhibition Utopian Dreams. These acclaimed and imaginative projects inspire a wider debate on the future of Rotterdam. A city evolves through becoming more diverse, innovative, and ecological. Now that Rotterdam, with its distinctive skyline, is (almost) complete, the question arises: what is the artist’s current perspective on this city? What does the city now need?

Atelier Van Lieshout artwork(s) on display: Documentation of AVL-Ville (2001)

19 November 2015 – 19 December 2015

Almine Rech Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by dutch artist Joep van Lieshout at the gallery. In this exhibition titled Primitive Modern, Joep van Lieshout presents the transition between two key projects: the new project Neo-futurism and recent works from the Gesamtkunstwerk New Tribal Labyrinth, which the artist has beenworking on for the last four years. Both projects depict the same paradoxical utopian desires, while bringing to the fore a clear shift through a future vision on the development of the world.

New Tribal Labyrinth is a series of sculptures that embrace the industrial revolution and depict the romantic longing to become one with both machine and matter. The series suggests the emergence of a new world order, inspired by old world orders. In this world, populated by fictional tribes, we see a return to agriculture and industry and the revaluation of ancient rituals. New Tribal Labyrinth is made up of agricultural, industrial and ritual objects, yet the exhibition mainly focuses on the world of rites and rituals. Sculptures that serve as objects of worship, victory columns and fertility figures refer to primitive sculptures. Venus figures and Madonnas, carved out of an intuitive and instinctive desire, stand on pedestals that refer to the modernism of the early 20th century.

Van Lieshout’s recent work Neo-futurism translates Futurism, the art movement of the early20th century, into 21st century contemporaneity in a disruptive manner. Technology, bigdata, acceleration, conflict, aggression, robotics and recycling are mixed with poetry and romanticism. Not only do they show a new direction in the oeuvre of Van Lieshout, but they also offer us a glimpse of a possible future under construction, based, on the one hand,on destruction and deconstruction. Yet on the other hand, the work depicts the optimism of (re) construction and new energy. A shining example is the endless column that gives new meaning to the remnants of primitivism.

The largest work in the exhibition is a tribal dwelling. This Essential Dwelling is like a rockcave carved out by man. Here, the inside space and functions are determined by the original desires and urges of the human being. An essential living unit whose interior is shaped by irrational wishes. Here again, a tribal object is mixed with the ideas of modernism. The sculpture is both contemporary and utopian, primitive and archaic.

The coming together of Neo-futurism and the New Tribal Labyrinth challenges the viewer to set in search of a new image of the future as a new mental point of reference. Past and future, modernism and primitivism, the rational and the irrational, utopia and dystopia, art, energy and science are brought together and investigated. In this way, Van Lieshout creates new systems and worldviews on the ruins of the past.

Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on view: Early Bird (2015), Black Madonna (2014), The Essential Dwelling (2015), Les Brutalist series (2015), Zig Zag (2015) and many others.

Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, Belgium