Work
Carolus Magnus
Mixed media
750 x 600 x 800 cm
Carolus Magnus has three floors:
1. The Gold Digger, a machine for mining gold yourself, thereby gaining wealth, power, independence and influence.
2. Reliquarium, hiding a great, unsolved mystery.
3. Charlemagne’s Throne, where power, magic, faith and superstition come together.
Carolus Magnus (2023) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Disco Inferno, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2023 – 2024
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Psychiatrists Office
Fiberglass
400 x 350 x 130 cm
If the ground floor with its machines and pipes represent the organs and circulatory system of the body, then this floor represents the mind and the soul: the control room of ‘Disco Inferno’.
On show is the latest work from Atelier Van Lieshout: a psychiatric examination room with a specially designed sofa and other surreal-looking furniture. Here Joep van Lieshout, creator of the ‘Disco Inferno’ and instigator of all this machine violence, is endlessly and exhaustively interrogated by psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists and shamans to ultimately find out what the work is about.
Cranium (2023) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Disco Inferno, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2023 – 2024
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Shredder Launderette
Mixed media
390 x 170 x 250 cm
The launderette is a white upper world where everything that has become grimy in the ‘Disco Inferno’ is cleaned. Underneath the launderette is the shredder that grinds cut-up car tires and plastic waste into raw material for the Pyrolyzer.
Shredder Launderette (2023) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Disco Inferno, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2023 – 2024
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Ball Mill
Steel
200 x 100 x 150 cm
Ball Mill (2023) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Disco Inferno, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2023 – 2024
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Pyrolyzer
Mixed media
810 x 190 x 285 cm
The Pyrolyzer converts waste plastic and old car tires into heavy oil, diesel oil, petrol and gas. The waste is melted in a large, rotating heated boiler. The resulting gases are condensed, separated and purified into usable fuel for all ‘Disco Inferno’ machines and generators. The Pyrolyzer keeps the entire engine room running until all the available waste plastic and rubber has been used.
Pyrolyzer (2023) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Disco Inferno, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2023 – 2024
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Bussing Boy
Mixed media
108 x 64 x 87 cm
Bussing Boy (2022) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Kelder, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Fantoom Hoofd met Jongeling
Mixed media
50 x 57 x 139,5
Fantoom Hoofd met Jongeling (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Kelder, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 -2022
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Knee Step
Mixed media
85 x 47 x 105 cm
Knee Step (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Le Voyage, Le Portique, Le Havre (FR), 2022
Kelder, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Covid-19
Mixed media
300 x 110 x 162 cm
Covid-19 (2022) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Le Voyage, Le Portique, Le Havre (FR), 2022
Kelder, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Victory
Mixed media
120 x 243 x 254 cm
Victory (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Fake Me Hard, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Body Armour
Mixed media
50 x 48 x 197 cm
Body Armour (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Kelder, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022
Fake Me Hard, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
2021
Mixed media
160 x 130 x 215 cm
Fake Me Hard, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Sad Weelchair
Mixed media
89 x 87 x 92 cm
Sad Weelchair (2022) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Le Voyage, Le Portique, Le Havre (FR), 2022
Kelder, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
The Developer
Foam, fiberglass
85 x 100 x 222 cm
The Developer (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Fake Me Hard, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Tinder Trechter
Foam and fiberglass
95 x 110 x 235 cm
Body Armour (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Fake Me Hard, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Operating Table with Devil
Mixed media
180 x 160 x 199 cm
Life and death go hand in hand in operating theatres. It’s where the medical belief in engineerability clashes with the unpredictability and irrationality of fate. It’s also the place where the sins of human kind are visited upon the individual, be it a disease or deformation resulting from environmental pollution or ailments caused by fastfood and a rushed life.
In Operating Table with Devil the natural order of things has been deeply disturbed. A baby performs its own ceasarian not unlike the monsterous extraterrestials in Alien while the mother gives birth to a grown man. Freudian sexuality, fear of the future and the utter failure of scientific rationality come together in this surrealist sculpture.
Operating Table with Devil (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Kelder – Obsessions, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Dental Wheel Chair
Mixed media
137 x 95 x 200 cm
Patients can be made as comfortable as possible using improvised means. So the chair has been angled and the headrest wrapped. The cuspidor for blood and rinsing water is so large it cannot be missed.
The duty dentist has a mobile practice to work with that is more akin to a workshop than a medical treatment setting. The parts originate from home decoration or DIY centres. Pulled teeth are collected in jam jars so new dentures can be made from them at the dental lab.
Dental Wheel Chair (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Le Voyage, Le Portique, Le Havre (FR), 2022
Kelder – Obsessions, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Sportzone
Mixed media
104 x 89 x 169 cm
Sportzone(2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Le Voyage, Le Portique, Le Havre (FR), 2022
Kelder, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2022
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022
Fake Me Hard, AVL Mundo, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Anatomy Lesson
Mixed media
310 x 238 x 196 cm
Anatomy Lesson (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022
Fake Me Hard, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Exhibitions
‘Disco Inferno’, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL)
Disco Inferno is an industrial monster of grinding, pulverizing, producing machines, linked together by a spaghetti of tubes, hoses, cables, tanks and pumps. Every detail here has been carefully thought out and sculpted by Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL). Each welding seam, nut or bolt is a conscious choice. These machines run on almost anything – cooking oil, lard, or homemade pyrolysis oil.
The only useful purpose of this complex installation is that it keeps itself in motion, while the excess heat of giant diesel engines that power all the machines and generators is recycled to supply heat for the project’s ultimate destination ‘the happy end of everything spa’.
In an investigation that moves between fascination, aversion and an urge for more, Van Lieshout tests the limits of power, material and greed. “ As long as we have oil or waste plastic, we can keep dancing on the edge of the volcano” This installation is an open-ended work. It is not a static snapshot of a moment, it will transform with time.
On view at BRUTUS
Thursday – Sunday: 12:00 – 18:00h
‘Through Bone and Marrow’, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL)
02 April 2023 – 25 June 2023
We live in the Anthropocene, the age of man. Never before has a single species had such a powerful impact on the environment. Meanwhile, we have become entangled in our own waste and enslaved by our own equipment, and, as a result, our senses have been dulled. We threaten to destroy the planet, but may lose ourselves, our humanity, well before then.
In ‘Through Bone And Marrow’ nearly 20 (international) artists present new, alternative connections between man, nature and technology. They go beyond existing contradictions between organic and inorganic, plant and animal, living and dead. This is led by a new aesthetic that offers space for discomfort, imperfection and the beauty of decay. Together they form an exhibition that gets under visitors’ skin and down to their bones. Curator Maarten Spruyt forces visitors to take a good look at themselves as well as imagining a different interrelationship with nature and technology.
‘The Voyage’, BRUTUS, Rotterdam (NL)
07 February 2023 – 05 March 2023
At Brutus Atelier Van Lieshout shows ‘The Voyage’, a group of works that speak about a journey to a better world, an utopia, a place beyond the horizon where the grass is greener. These fictional pioneers follow their hearts, guts and the flimsiest of game plans: anything goes and let’s see what happens. They have no clue where they are going, or what they want to achieve, but they cannot be stopped. Their expedition gear asks more questions than it gives answers, and might cause more problems than solutions; why make a selection when you can bring absolutely everything.
Brutus is host to massive, challenging performances and group and solo exhibitions. With its residency, sculpture park and 6000 sq meters exhibition space, it offers artists time, space and freedom to experiment at a massive scale.
Open Thursday – Sunday: 12:00 – 18:00
Free entrance
Announcement – BRUTUS
Artist Joep van Lieshout (Atelier Van Lieshout) and project developer RED Company have joined forces to build a large-scale cultural cluster with residential units, offices and services in Rotterdam’s up and coming M4H port area. Their cooperation heralds a new model for urban renewal that does not automatically push out creatives once neighbourhoods upgrade.
BRUTUS combines culture, living and working in an area with 120 years of industrial history. At its heart lies a cultural cluster measuring at least 7,000 square metres (75,000 ft2). This will house a museum, exhibition spaces, a publicly accessible art depot, an art education unit, workshops, studios and working/living spaces for artists. The outdoor area will feature an open air cinema, a theatre and a sculpture garden.
Click here for the press release
Click here for the press folder