15th March – 5th May 2012

Tim Van Laere Gallery, Verlatstraat 23 – 25, Antwerp, Belgium

9th February – 22th March 2012

Distrito 4, Conde de Aranda, 4, Madrid, Spain

16th December 2011– 17 June 2012

Villa Zebra, Stieltjesstraat 21, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

29th November 2011 – 14th Januari 2012

Gio Marconi, via Tadino 15, Milan, Italy

24th November 2011 – 18th February 2012

Plaza Río de Janeiro 54, Colonia Roma, Mexico City, Mexico

29 May 2010 – 26th September 2010

At ‘Infernopolis’ you could move among sinister installations and tableaux in which the distinctions between good and evil, life and death, and reality and fiction are erased. Atelier Van Lieshout’s fascination with systems is clearly manifest in the art work The Technocrat (2003-2004), which comprises all manner of apparatus, containers, beds and distillation vats. Together they formed a closed circuit of food, alcohol, excrement and energy. Cradle to Cradle (2009) takes the principle that human waste can be food to the extreme. Looking at this art work, it quickly becomes clear that this machine recycles everything, even people.

Endless circulation
At ‘Infernopolis’ you could move among sinister installations and tableaux in which the distinctions between good and evil, life and death, and reality and fiction are erased. Atelier Van Lieshout’s fascination with systems is clearly manifest in the art work The Technocrat (2003-2004), which comprises all manner of apparatus, containers, beds and distillation vats. Together they form a closed circuit of food, alcohol, excrement and energy. Cradle to Cradle (2009) takes the principle that human waste can be food to the extreme. Looking at this art work, it quickly becomes clear that this machine recycles everything, even people.

Vision of the future
The exhibition in the Submarine Wharf contained Atelier Van Lieshout’s most recent sculptures, which have never previously been exhibited. These works illustrated the evolution of a new culture resulting from a society of over-consumption and scarce resources. In this culture we saw a harshening of relations between people and an increased will to survive. Through battle scenes and a large, abstracted cannon (WW III, 2010) Atelier Van Lieshout provided a glimpse of a possible future. The sculpture Cascade by Atelier Van Lieshout, placed at Churchillplein in Rotterdam illustrated this theme as well.

Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on display: Bikinibar (2006), Darwin (2008), BarRectum (2005), Penis Small, Medium, XL (2003), Exploded View  (2009), Tree (2008), WW III (2010), Cow’s Head (2010), Woman on Bed (2006), Fertility (2008) and many others

12 September 2008 – 11 January 2009

From 12 September 2008 until 11 January 2009 The Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen will host a large retrospective of the work of Atelier van Lieshout (AVL). ‘Das Haus’ will show works ranging from the early 80’s until today in several thematic spaces, and artworks from different periods will be brought together in new relationships.

The organisation of a large-scale showcase of Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) is not unlike the creation of a parallel universe. This is partly because of the huge effort involved, which goes far beyond what an exhibition usually requires: an Armada of low-loaders, cranes and fork-lift trucks was deployed to move the work in containers, crates and boxes from production point in Rotterdam harbour to presentation point in the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen. It was like an invasion, the way the emptied former umbrella factory filled up from day to day with the voluminous new arrivals and underwent a gradual and compelling spatial redefinition through their sculptural presence. But above all – and this is the other reason for installing this parallel universe – a retrospective of 25 years of artistic development opens up the possibility of viewing themes and leitmotifs within the context of their intended interconnection, and of acquiring a sense of the “saga” of Joep van Lieshout.

22.06.2005 – 02.10.2005

Two large AVL projects – “The Disciplinator” and “The Technocrat” – are presented in the MAK. “The Disciplinator”, a gigantic cage-like construction for 72 inmates, transforms the MAK Exhibition Hall into a modernlabor camp, designed to achieve maximum profits through rationalism. The 24 sleeping units are intended for use in three shifts, an example of bizarre perfection calculated to eliminate any type of friction. Especially because the AVL refrains from making any kind of moral statement, the “Disciplinator” communicates an unadulterated vision of the horrors of the principle of exploitation. The installation “The Technocrat” – a closed cycle consisting of food, alcohol, excrement and energy – is also meant to engender provocation through extreme rationalism. In this system, the human (“burgher”) functions as a biological cogwheel that drives an entire machine park, generating raw material for the production of biogas that in turn is used to cook food and produce alcohol (since the 1,000 burghers needed for the smooth running of the Technocrat must be kept happy and subdued). “The Technocrat” offers an ironic commentary on the situation of modern humans in a highly technological society that only gives the appearance of guaranteeing endless possibilities and total freedom.

With the generous support of the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam.

MAK Museum, Vienna, Austria

Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on display: Alcoholator (2004), Disciplinator (2003) and others.

29 January 2006 – 19 March 2006

From January till March 2006 gallery VIVID in Rotterdam presented the exhibition Happy Office, showing the entire office line by Joep Van Lieshout.

“The special thing about my collaboration with Hans is that it goes so incredibly quickly. Just a really direct, decisive approach.”– Joep van Lieshout

7 November 2004 – 23 January 2005

The Sprengel Museum Hannover has made it possible for Atelier van Lieshout (AVL) to realise ‘The Technocrat’, a new installation which encompasses several rooms. This is to honour the artists work as winners of the 2004 Kurt Schwitters Prize for Visual Arts. The project consists of 10 sculptural elements that they have shown in the past, together with 14 sculptural elements realised expressly for the occasion. Works on paper and sketches will complete the Sprengel Museum Hannover’s exhibition.

‘The Technocrat’ deals with elementary biological processes from everyday activities, such as providing oneself with nutrition, digestion, disposal and recycling. Van Lieshout gives these physiological needs a radical twist by reducing human existence to becoming a digestion machine. Human life is then limited to creating methane and a role in the nutritional chain of creation and death. Van Lieshout thus examine, in an ironic and humorous manner, Modern Man in a high-tech environment that apparently guarantees limitless possibilities and freedom.