Work
Sleep/Study Skull
Wood, fiberglass, leather
180 cm x 230 cm x 220 cm
Sleep/Study Skull (1996) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009
Location: Collection of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL) & Folkwang Museum, Essen (DE)
Gieleskull
Fiberglass
220 x 140 x 130 cm
Coffin for Peter Giele
Location: Cementery Zorgvliet, Amsterdam
Uomo Analyticus
Aluminium
160 x 115 x 210 cm
Joep van Lieshout’s fascination with systems and organs is apparent in his most recent installation, Cradle to Cradle (2009). This art work takes its name from the popular Cradle to Cradle manifesto by the American architect William McDonough and the German chemist Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle is based on the concept that waste is food. This means that old materials are used to form new products without loss of quality or waste products. This principle is taken to the extreme in AVL’s installation.
Cradle to Cradle consists of an anatomical theatre, a semi-industrial slaughterhouse and a high-tech operating room. Bones, skulls, muscle groups and organs lie on robust, brightly lit tables. Various flayed bodies hang from rails. This machine recycles people. In a model of efficiency, the organs are used for transplants, while the flesh, fluids, fat and bones are processed into meat. The remainder is used to harvest energy.
Uomo Analyticus (2013) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘SlaveCity’, De Pont, Tilburg (NL), 2016
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Tampa Skull
Mixed media
220 x 225 x 770
Tampa Skull is a claustrophobic living unit. Its dimensions were determined by the absolute minimum amount of space that a human body needs in order to move from one section to another and use its facilities: a toilet, a bathroom, a kitchen with a deep frying pan, an office, a living room and a bedroom. Compact yet complete.
Collection Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
AVL Workskull
Fiberglass
150 x 150 x 165 cm
AVL Workskull is designed for large offices as a secluded place, where employees can work alone undisturbed, have more privacy for phone calls or retreat from the world.
AVL Workskull (2005) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Roof Installation’, ROOF-A, Rotterdam (NL), 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Skull On Stand
Fiberglass
140 x 85 x 190 cm
Skull On Stand (2005) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘SlaveCity’, De Pont, Tilburg (NL), 2016
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Cradle to Cradle
Mixed Media
Various dimensions
Joep van Lieshout’s fascination with systems and organs is apparent in his installation Cradle to Cradle (2009). This artwork takes its name from the popular Cradle to Cradle manifesto by the American architect William McDonough and the German chemist Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle is based on the concept that waste is food. This means that old materials are used to form new products without loss of quality or waste products. This principle is taken to the extreme in AVL’s installation. Cradle to Cradle consists of an anatomical theatre, a semi-industrial slaughterhouse and a high-tech operating room. Bones, skulls, muscle groups and organs lie on robust, brightly lit tables. Various flayed bodies hang from rails. This machine recycles people. In a model of efficiency, the organs are used for transplants, while the flesh, fluids, fat and bones are processed into meat. The remainder is used to harvest energy.
Cradle to Cradle includes part of the interior of another art work – SlaveCity – which Joep van Lieshout has been designing since 2005 and which is intended to house 200,000 residents. The infrastructure of SlaveCity has been fully worked out on paper and in models and objects, and includes universities, brothels, a hospital, an airport, a shopping centre, a call centre and a museum. SlaveCity’s potential residents are selected upon entry. AVL describes the selection process as follows: ‘Old, crippled, sick and bad tasting people will be recycled in a biogas digester, while the healthy, not so clever will be recycled in the meat processing factory. The young and healthy will take part in the organ transplant program.’ Only six per cent of all participants are suited to working in the call centre. The selected healthy slaves follow a strict schedule. They work seven hours per day in the service industry or on the land and seven hours in the call centre. They must spend the remaining ten hours on personal maintenance, relaxation and sleep. If all the slaves keep to this regime, SlaveCity is able to provide all its own food, water and energy. ‘The city’s only source of energy is that which it produces itself covered by the use of biogas, solar and wind energy, working to build a ‘cradle to cradle’ situation in which everything works as a closed circuit recycling system, where there is no waste.’ Moreover, the organisational structure of SlaveCity is highly profitable. The revenue is invested in medical assistance, organic food and green energy.
With macabre sculptures and installations such as Cradle to Cradle, AVL offers an extremely provocative answer to the world’s problems of overpopulation and depleted energy supplies. In addition, the art works hold up a mirror to society, magnifying contemporary trends in the fields of ecological (product) design and the economy. ‘[…] Cradle to Cradle is presented as a perversion of a highly modern achievement-oriented society, bringing forward the discussion of the broken limit between good and evil.’ The art work shows ‘the logical outcome – the shadowy other – of a ruling democratic system entangled in its own guiding principles of economic rationalisation and expanding biological control’, according to the theorist Helen Petrovsky in a catalogue from 2009.
Cradle to Cradle (2009) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘SlaveCity’, De Pont, Tilburg (NL), 2016
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
‘De Kannibaal’, Villa Zebra, Rotterdam (NL), 2011 – 2012
‘Infernopolis’, Submarinewharf, Rotterdam (NL), 2010
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Exploded View
Polyurea
211 x 190 x 258 cm
Joep van Lieshout’s fascination with systems and organs is apparent in his most recent installation, Cradle to Cradle (2009). This art work takes its name from the popular Cradle to Cradle manifesto by the American architect William McDonough and the German chemist Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle is based on the concept that waste is food. This means that old materials are used to form new products without loss of quality or waste products. This principle is taken to the extreme in AVL’s installation.
Cradle to Cradle consists of an anatomical theatre, a semi-industrial slaughterhouse and a high-tech operating room. Bones, skulls, muscle groups and organs lie on robust, brightly lit tables. Various flayed bodies hang from rails. This machine recycles people. In a model of efficiency, the organs are used for transplants, while the flesh, fluids, fat and bones are processed into meat. The remainder is used to harvest energy.
Exploded View (2009) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘SlaveCity’, De Pont, Tilburg (NL), 2016
‘De Kannibaal’, Villa Zebra, Rotterdam (NL), 2011 – 2012
‘Infernopolis’, Submarinewharf, Rotterdam (NL), 2010
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Alpha & Omega
Fiberglass
The two bus stops Alpha & Omega (2009) in the shape of an egg and a skull are commissioned by Gemeente Dordrecht and placed at the beginning and end of the scholars bus route if not only symbolizing the beginning and end of life but also the process of learning and the scholars’ career.
Commission
Location: Dordrecht, The Netherlands
Sensory Deprivation Skull
Fiberglass
Edition of 10
50 x 40 x 60 cm
This small skull is inspired by the Study Skulls and other Skulls Joep van Lieshout made in the late nineties. Making use of the minimal space needed for the body to relax this unit opens out to reveal a room in which the user can escape the sensory clutter of modern life.
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Wellness Skull
Fiberglass, wood
600 x 250 x 450 cm
A healthy mind in a healthy body. The neck of this giant skull houses a bath and its cranium a sauna. The eyes emit steam when it is in use. Wellness Skull is a monument to the complexity and beauty of the human body, including the parts that usually remain covered. The sculpture also questions our contemporary obsession with youthfulness, self-experiences and indulgence, as wellness has become a new religion.
Wellness Skull (2007) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘De Verleiding’, Bosch Parade, ‘s Hertogenbosch (NL), 2022
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020 – 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Exhibitions
‘De Verleiding’, Bosch Parade, ‘s Hertogenbosch (NL)
16 June 2022 – 19 June 2022
Bosch Parade 2022 is the 9th edition of this extraordinary art manifestation on the water with Hieronymus Bosch as its inspiration. This year’s theme is ‘seduction’. From 16 to 19 June, it promises once again to be an inspiring cruise of the absurd through the historic centre of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, with nineteen idiosyncratic works of art in and on the water.
Atelier Van Lieshout has built an enormous Hammer, which smashes through the water with a compelling heartbeat. With thunderous blows, the hammer, like a floating rat catcher, lures Bosch Parade to follow it. From 26 May. Atelier van Lieshout will also be exhibiting a number of impressive artworks and sculptural installations, such as the Wellness Skull, Le Foot, Invisible Hand and House of Transition, in the Garden of Earthly Delights, the breeding ground at the Citadel where the artists are working on their objects for the Bosch Parade.
Le Foot at the Garden of Earthly Delights. Photo and credits: Kleurstof
‘Happy Forest’, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo (NL)
In the summer of 2005 the sculpture garden of Kröller Müller Museum is transformed into the Happy Forest, an exhibition by Atelier Van Lieshout.
A large section of the sculpture garden, including the events’ terrain and the adjacent sculpture forest, is adorned with ‘organ sculptures’ and mobile homes of brightly coloured polyester – a trademark of AVL – that bear titles such as Workshop for Weapons and Bombs, Wombhouse, Skull and Septic tanks. All the works are allowed to be touched and often even entered. Wombhouse, for example, is equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and a minibar.
‘The autarkic nature of AVL’s work’ is particularly emphasized in the exhibition. Although works of art, the mobile units all have a functional use that is aimed at an independent and self-sufficient existence. For example, the sculptures represent alternative possibilities for generating energy, processing waste and there is a farm with chickens, rabbits and sheep.
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL)
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)
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL)
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
‘Territory’, AVL Mundo, Rotterdam (NL)
8 June 2013 – 29th September 2013
Group exhibition AVL-Mundo, Rotterdam
Atelier Van Lieshout artworks on display: Cow (2011), Waterwagon (2007), The Monument (2010), Wellness Skull (2007), Der Kuss (2008), Wall Decoration (2008)
‘Infernopolis’, Submarinewharf, Rotterdam (NL)
29 May 2010 – 26th September 2010
The exhibition Infernopolis by Atelier Van Lieshout in the port of Rotterdam was a big hit. No fewer than 20.315 visitors found their way to the port of Rotterdam. Atelier Van Lieshout inaugurated the Submarine Wharf with the spectacular exhibition Infernopolis. In the 5000m2 space Atelier Van Lieshout created a terrifying setting in which medical instruments, vacuum pumps, silos, skulls, skeletons, and giant sperm cells and bodily organs are the main protagonists. Two enormous installations, ‘The Technocrat’ and ‘Cradle to Cradle’, were installed amid a forest of existing and new sculptures.
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