Atelier Van Lieshout

Copper
550 x 550 x 1000 cm

To celebrate its sixtieth anniversary, the University of Twente unveiled a special work of art on Thursday, 19 May 2022: The Head. This 10-metre tall creation by artist Joep van Lieshout has been given a prominent place at the entrance to the university grounds.

Visitors can not only see the work of art from the outside, but can also climb into it. A narrow staircase takes you to a platform on top of the head, where you have a view over the campus on the one hand and the Kennispark on the other.

The Head marks the possibilities and dilemmas on the eve of the fourth industrial revolution, when the boundaries between the physical, digital and biological worlds are blurred. The sculpture is a monument to the waning of human dominance. A totem that marks the crossroads where we are now and a lookout to the future.

COR-ten steel
1300 x 430 x 400 cm

The Whale rests on the shore, not unlike the catch brought in by the whalers of centuries past. The majestic animal will not be dissected for blubber to fuel lamps or grease machinery, however, as it’s made of steel. It appears more similar to a barge, than a marine mammal.

The Whale is Atelier Van Lieshout’s salute to nature’s power, human technological ingenuity and the ways these often clash. Moreover, it’s a life-size reference to Moby Dick, the world’s most famous whale. In Joep van Lieshout’s view, Moby Dick is a tale of revenge and the struggle of man, personified by Captain Ahab vs. nature. It’s rather telling that in the end, man – who considers himself above nature -is defeated by the forces he tries to control and master.

Van Lieshout’s The Whale is Ahab’s nemesis and Old Testaments Jonah’s organic prison rolled into one. The animal has outsmarted its pursuers, but has also partly become them by transforming into a welded steel hulk. Holes in its side allow people to look into its belly, where one sees a figure in the middle of the whale. This could be Jonah praying for his salvation or a present-day Ahab pondering his warped relationship with nature.

The Whale (2022) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Arts Le Havre‘, Le Havre (FR), 2022

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Steel
Diverse measurements

Happy End of Everything’ includes a bar, a smoking table and a cooking installation where people can eat, drink and smoke without limits. However, each part of the installation is also destructive. The cooker contains an ‘Incinerator’, an incinerator with such a high temperature that everything evaporates. The drinks and smoking table contains a ‘Drop Hammer’ that shatters everything into dust. The final component is the ‘Pyrolyzer’, a mobile refinery that makes diesel and oil from collected plastic waste.

Happy End of Everything (2020) was part of the following exhibition(s):
De Afbreekeconomie, Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (NL), 2020

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Mixed media
110 x 150 x 225 cm

This figure brings to mind pictures of soldiers dying in trenches or concentration camp prisoners caught on barbed wire fences. In their dying moments they all mimic Saint Sebastian’s posture as depicted in Christian iconography since the 9th century. Atelier Van Lieshout’s version of the arrow-pierced martyr is not tied to a stake or a tree, but hung from a frame, like a puppet manipulated by rules of human design. However, the structure doesn’t consist of neat beams held together by uniform bolts and screws, but is rather intuitively thrown together. It’s a form of expressionist sculpture, signifying a value system out of whack.

Bas (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
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

Watercolour
64 x 98 cm

Part of a series of drawings that tell the story of the birth of the Free State of AVL-Ville. Masterplan shows a further development of the Free Stage. One can still see the farm and the Autocrat, next to the factory there is a blast furnace, heat and carbon dioxide is recycled and used in the greenhouses. There is also a large arsenal, a watermill to supply electricity and a sawmill where the wood on the island is made into lumber for building furniture and barracks. There are also a tank, watch towers and a fence. In the back, there are the prison camps.

Masterplan (1998) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Two Years’ Vacation, FRAC Lorraine, Metz (FR), 2020 – 2021
Reality is Not What it Seems, Jousse Entreprise, Paris (FR), 2020

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
190 x 125 x 120 cm

For the 2009 series of furniture, Joep van Lieshout choose the human figure as starting point. Sculptures have been transformed by adding just a few items that changed them into furniture pieces. On one side furniture has been made out of human sculptures (the bodysofa) on the other side prints of people are used for several pieces (fossils, liquor man). The results were not designed but the process dictated the outcome of this furniture. Body Sofa, 2009 Fat Bastard, 2009 Liquor Master, 2009

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass, steel, bronze coating
300 x 270 x 550

This sculpture represents a glucose molecule (C6H12O6); it shows the source of energy for human existence. This molecule is an essential fuel for our muscles and brain, which stimulate humans to create, discover and move. Nothing would work without glucose. Our lives, our machines, our vehicles and our cities would come to a halt without this fuel. De Onmisbare (The indispensable) is a contemporary artistic interpretation of this chemical structure.

Commission
Location: Station Kampen, The Netherlands

Steel
50 x 50 x 185 cm

Man of Steel was forged in Atelier Van Lieshout’s mobile foundry Happy Industry, from a single piece of metal, by four blacksmiths who crafted the sculpture in a two-day timespan. The same people who designed the sculpture were also responsible for its production, and supplied the bare musclepower – in contrast with contemporary industrial production methods. The sculpture, a primitive human, is placed on a cubist pedestal. A juxtaposition between one of mankind’s most ancient sacred objects and an artistic movement striving towards the future.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass, wood
670 x 213 x 245 cm

Costum made relaxation, enjoyment and sex, La Bais-ô-Drôme is equipped with a minibar, sound system and upholstered tables; the bed is situated in a slide-out section while the toilet is a simple hole in the floor.

Collection FRAC Rhône-Alpes, Lyon

Fiberglass
361 x 210 x 211 cm

A larger version of the Mini Capsule, Maxi Capsule Luxus is an entirely self-supporting unit that functions as a mobile hotel room. Its luxuries include a king-size bed, a minibar, an entertainment centre for listening to music and watching films, a heating and ventilation system along with storage facilities for luggage and clothing. Everything is sealed with the shade of love: red fibreglass, red leather, soft red carpet upholstering on the floor, walls and ceiling. The red cube is a machine for concentration and retreat, which contains its comforts inside while carrying its equipment on the exterior surfaces. The technical capacities outside of the cube can provide a contrast to what’s happening inside. Private collection, Milan

Private collection, Milan

Wood
Diverse measurements

In the Biogas Installation, faeces are pumped to the first tank or digester, where the temperature is kept at 37 °C. The mass is stirred, and the acidity of the liquid is maintained. Methane gas forms through the influence of bacteria in the first digester. After 21 days the liquid moves to the second digester to recuperate the last traces of biogas. After that, it goes into the large horizontal tank, a septic tank with an aerator that pumps oxygen through the liquid to improve purification. The next step is the green filter: the filter removes the last impurities and produces quality drinking water, which is connected and transferred to the Water Tower. The biogas collects in barrels next to the tanks where it is dried and washed. There is safety equipment in case of overpressure or if the system backfires.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
950 x 600 x 300 cm

A meeting point for elderly people: beautiful, cruel and sensual, with a nice interior space. Both art and architecture, BikiniBar represents a building as a sculpture and a sculpture as a building. There is a place to rest inside, where people can withdraw from the busy beach life or bad weather. BikiniBar is the only female body you can enter without permission.

BikiniBar (2006) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
‘Infernopolis’, Submarinewharf, Rotterdam (NL), 2010

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass

BarRectum, ArschBar, AssholeBar, BarAnus. With a play on words, as well as function, the large-scale sculpture takes its shape from the human digestive system: starting with the tongue, continuing to the stomach, moving through the small and the large intestines and ending with the anus. Its rendition is anatomically correct, except for the colon which has been enlarged to house a bar. The anus constitutes the emergency exit.

BarRectum (2005) was part of the following exhibition(s):
RAUM der Lusten, RAUM, Utrecht (NL), 2021
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020 – 2021
‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, Ruhrtriennale, Bochum (DE), 2015
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
‘Infernopolis’, Submarinewharf, Rotterdam (NL), 2010
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
630 x 236 x 212 cm

Wombhouse is a utility unit that acts as the technical core for a house. The womb is not only every human’s first dwelling, but also the only human body part that can be inhabited by another individual. Prefabricated, the technical core contains all of the essential functions of a building: sanitation, kitchen, heating, ventilation. Normally, this core is an anonymous, square object. By contrast, Wombhouse has an exciting, poetic and enchanting shape. The womb contains a bedroom in the uterus – the safest place in the mind of human beings – along with heating, air-conditioning, electrical systems, a kitchen and a shower. One ovary contains the minibar; the other the toilet. Wombhouse can make any space function as a home; the structure requires only a roof and walls to protect it from the climate. Put the plug in the socket, and everything will work.

Wombhouse (2004) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009
‘Happy Forest’, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo (NL), 2005

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass
1000 x 800 x 600 cm

For the new School of Architecture in Nantes Atelier Van Lieshout has made l’Absence. As a sculpture, l’Absence fits into the architectural constraints of the site. The result is a moving and living mass, with multiple protuberances, incarnation of an instinctive gesture, without any delimitation or any function. A living space where we wish discussions will happen. L’Absence is in turn a bar, a sculpture, a comment on today’s architecture that will, without a doubt, fuel students’ imagination.

Location: School of Architecture, Nantes (FR)

Fiberglass
250 x 210 x 237 cm

The Mall, situated in SlaveCity’s public area is a giant biomorphic baroque shopping center. With 26 floors this humongous building is the world’s largest boundless consumer paradise, opened 24/7. The Mall houses countless shops that are irrationally chosen by Joep, consisting of numerous luxury good stores, with upstairs a recreational area including brothels, bars, night clubs, casinos, and a spa. Other floors house fashion stores, art galleries, design and furniture stores as well as convenience services. Downstairs you will find an arena for entertainment fights with supermarkets and quality organic food suppliers. Furthermore a health department with pharmacies and dental- and medical care as well as a hair- and beauty salon, a cosmetic surgery parlor.   The Mall: the shopping city, just to kill time.

Steel, wood
2350 x 600 x 420 cm

Central part of the Saw Mill/Cheese Maker is the hand-powered Saw Mill. The Cheese Maker, an extremely crude, organic, rustic, indestructible barrel made from a tree trunk and used for curdling, is an extension to the Saw Mill. Both machines are connected to a central axle, driven by a tread wheel which is to be operated by humans. The Cheese Maker is also connected to the Milking Machine, which provides the milk for the cheese, directly from the cow, creating a closed circuit. The cheese production process is rudimentary, unhygienic, smutty even, making the Cheese Maker both an addition to and a denial of the modernist ideology of the Saw Mill, which represents the utopia of building a new world, of cooperation, of efficient, clean production. Generally, the process of making cheese is also a very hygienic one, but in this case bacteria get a free rein and everything will be sticky and smelly.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass, wood
580 x 295 x 340 cm

Temple serves as a retreat for the farmer, for contemplation and worship. It is a sheltered space, half underground and covered with grass and sand. Inside is a statue of a Funnelhead, a frequently recurring theme in the works of AVL. Funnelhead is a symbol for the human state, being force-fed physically as well as mentally.

Temple, 2012 Funnelhead, 2012 Barbaar, 2012

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

COR-TEN steel
190 x 157 x 367 cm

Numbers are everything these days. The economy, politics and society are all controlled by figures. Statistics helps us understand trends and predict developments, however they are also rigid and coercive. Tech companies increasingly shape our lives using big data and algorithms. Tomorrow’s ruler The Statistocrat consists of bar graphs.

Statistocrat (2015) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020 – 2021
‘ArtZuid‘, Amsterdam (NL), 2017

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

10 February 2023 – 12 March 2023

Our Steam Hammer House is on the move again, currently on show at the first edition of Sculptura Festival in the beautiful location of Gare Maritime, Tour & Taxis, Brussels.

The steam hammer was invented in Manchester around 1837 and gave a huge boost to the industrial revolution. Once an example of technological achievement, ‘Steam Hammer House’ is now a clear reminder of obsolescence. The interior contains the elements for a home, with a kitchen, an office, a bathroom and toilet in the legs, and a bar, which serves as a hub for social gatherings. It is a workplace where man and machine become one.

18 June 2022 – 25 September 2022

At Documenta 15, Más Arte Más Acción (MAMA) reflects on climate change and deforestation, connecting knowledge and experiences gained in Colombian rainforests to the forests of Germany. During Documenta’s 100 day duration, artists, activists and people from MAMA’s ecosystem will reflect on how monoculture and climate change have resulted in mass bark beetle infestations in central Europe. Most of the programme will take place in and around the MAMA Werner, a mobile platform for social interaction created by Atelier Van Lieshout and adapted specifically for this occasion.

AVL’s contribution to Documenta 15 is a caravan headed by the MAMA Werner, a powerful vehicle with a trailer that functions as a documentation centre and library. An attached tent provides space for workshops, screenings and other public activities. A 14-metre diameter table will be used for debates and communal gatherings. Behind the trailer sits a pyrolyser, that transforms waste plastics into diesel using thermal decomposition. The installation is completed with the Excrementus Megalomanus, a composting machine that turns human excrement and other bodily fluids into fertilizer. It is outfitted with a toilet and specially designed receptacles for vomit, urine and semen.

Click here for the full program.

Supported by the Mondriaan Fonds.

14 February 2021 – 15 August 2021

This exhibition interweaves narratives about the architecture of fertility, the space shaped by social attitudes, and the women who ensure a better future for upcoming generations. At this exhibition’s core are the heroines, the ladies on the barricades, the spatial consequences of the struggle for self-determination of the body and fertility regulation.

Bureau Europa invited curator Malkit Shoshan (Harvard Graduate School of Architecture and Design) to present her research and exhibition project Love in a Mist. Bureau Europa’s curator Remco Beckers elaborates on the exhibition through the prism of our region’s context

Atelier Van Lieshout artwork on display: The Womb (2003)

30 April 2021 – 29 August 2021

CityLab RAUM in Utrecht has joined with architecture bureau ZUS to host the open-air exhibition ‘RAUM der Lusten‘. The exhibition at the Berlijnplein in Utrecht presents an exciting alternative to the often-monotonous design of our public spaces.

The concept for RAUM der Lusten was inspired by the iconic painting The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymus Bosch. Like the painting, the exhibition is a triptych of three landscapes: ‘Paradise’, ‘The World’ and ‘Hell’. The visitor is an integral element of the exhibition, in which each landscape offers a unique experience through its individual programme and works on display.

In the ‘Paradise’ dune landscape by Studio Ossidiana, visitors can lounge, play and enjoy a bite to eat. ‘The World’, designed by architecture bureau ZUS, emphasises collectivity, with an expansive community kitchen garden as its focal point. In the dark, infernal ‘Hell’ landscape, you can find work by artists Maarten Baas, Atelier Van Lieshout and Andrea Hasler.

The exhibition offers plenty to explore and experience; from playful strolls to podcasts, film screenings and foraging tours. For the full programme of events, see the RAUM website.

Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on view: BarRectum (2005)

18 July 2020 – 3 January 2021

‘Let’s Get Physical’ is a dynamic exploration of the burgeoning industrial Merwe-Vierhaven area in the west of Rotterdam, highlighted through a selection of 30+ Atelier Van Lieshout sculptures at 13 locations. Get your free road map at AVL Mundo Sculpture Park which serves as the sculpture route’s home base. Other participating locations are: Weelde, Keilecafé, Keilepand, Keilewerf, Stichting Dakpark, The Lee Towers, CrossFit Nultien and several publicly accessible venues.

Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on display: Alcoholator (2004), Arschmänner (2004), Autocomposter (2003), AVL Man Waving (1999), BarRectum (2005), Big Boiler (2018), Buffel (2011), Darwin (2008), De Dokwerker (2019), Der Kuss (2008), Excrementus Megalomanus (2019), Family (2020), Fermenting Vessel with Man (2004), Food Reaktor (2013), Helpers (2014), Horn of Plenty (2008), Invisible Hand (2012), Kiss (2015), Laocoon (2003), Le Foot (2015), Lebensborn (2013), Milkman (2015), Panta Rhei (2011), Pantokrator (2015), Philosopher (2017), Power Hammer (2014), Statistocrat (2015), Steam Hammer House (2014), The Cube (2007), The Sower (2018), Tree of Life (2016), Utopia (2020), Vice (2014), Waterwagon (2007), Wellness Skull (2007) and Weltmeister (2010)

Link to press kit with additional texts and images

11 December 2019 – 31 December 2020

We live in a state of extremes. Extreme weather, as a result of climate change, is both scorching and inundating the planet with record temperatures, unprecedented wildfires and ever more frequent and severe droughts, storms and floods. Meanwhile, extreme ideologies and political positions are being amplified by the media’s news cycles and the echo chamber of the Internet, further polarizing societies already inflamed by extreme, and growing, inequality and resentments. Extremes breed more extremes, creating self-reinforcing cycles of pushback and backlash, and fueling spiraling feedback loops of increasing intensity.

Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on display: Birds (on image, 2017), Process 50 ton 50 mm (2016), Hydroform gastank 275 BAR (2017), The End of Everything (2017, video)

More info via this link

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

14 August 2015 – 26 Sept 2015

Ruhrtriennale, Bochum, Germany
www.ruhrtriennale.de

1 June 2014 – 1 October 2014

Kasteel Keukenhof Art Foundation

Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on display: Vice (2014), Power Hammer (2014), WWI (2012), Hagioscoop (2012), Panta Rhei (2011), Buffel (2011), Woman (2009), Bodyparts (2009), Birthing Woman (2009), Wellness Skull (2007), The Cube (2007), Bikinibar (2006), Skull on Stand (2005), Heart (2004), Penis XL (2003) and others

Keukenhof 1, Lisse, the Netherlands

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