Atelier Van Lieshout

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

Fiberglass
90 x 210 x 112 cm

Thin Man is one of the Atelier Van Lieshout’s sculptures that reflects upon our extremely advanced and complex society in which over-consumption and limited raw materials play a crucial role. Once supplies are exhausted society will see a harshening of relations between people and increased survival instinct which raises the question whether such radical changes, which are coupled with violence but which may also lead to a new improved society, are good or bad.

Fiberglass
930 x 640 x 280 cm

Big Funnel Man is 10 meters long and rests alongside the A27 highway near Breda, where there are always traffic jams at rush hour. People sitting in their cars, going to and from work every weekday, might feel just like the force-fed man.

A video of Big Funnel Man (2004) via this link

Commission
Location: A27, Breda (NL)

Fiberglass
108 x 55 x 38 cm

Black Funnelman is part of the project Technocrat (2003-2005), an installation which presents the public with a closed circuit of food, alcohol, excrement and energy, with humans as the one of the cogwheels. Central to this closed system is a biogas installation that processes human excrement into methane gas. By way of funnels and tubes, a thousand participants are administered on a daily basis with food and alcohol that have been prepared with this gas. The Technocrat reveals Van Lieshout’s fascination with organizations and systems, and the (ir)relevance of the individual as part of a whole.

Black Funnelman (2006) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Recover/Uncover’, Masa Galeria, Mexico City (MX), 2020

Fiberglass
202 x 175 x 150 cm

Fiberglass
200 x 57 x 127 cm

Before entering SlaveCity and becoming one of its inhabitants, you have to pass the Welcoming Center. In this large building the participants are selected for their suitability to come and work in SlaveCity. Old, cripple, sick and bad tasting people will be recycled in the biogas digester. Healthy, not so clever people, will be recycled in the meat processing factory. Young and very healthy people will be able to take part in the organ transplant program. Healthy, clever people will go to work in the CallCenter.

Fiberglass
195 x 115 x 75 cm

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
135 x 170 x 100 cm

Fiberglass
450 x 245 x 230 cm (1 head)

This sculpture group has three heads, which are hollow and can be used in different ways. The male head Hermann is a typical blue eyed blond, the female Claudia has dark hair and brown eyes. Tom, the third head, is a dark-faced man, standing straight on his neck. The three of them together reflect on the diversity of humanity in a very special way. Keep an open mind, whatever its size.

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

Fiberglass
70 x 60 x 300 cm

Pig Toilet
90 x 100 x 90 cm

Such pig toilets are still used in many parts of the world. People defecate in the toilet in the front; pigs happily eat the excrement from the trough at the back. The work was part of a theatre play about the different aspects of faeces and how it is dealt with. If anything, art is like shit: once an artwork comes out of the artist’s body, the work usually cannot be touched or changed anymore.

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

Fiberglass
145 x 150 x 145 cm

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

Fiberglass

For family doctor and art collector, Dr Van Sint Fiet. AVL redesigned, refurbished and rebuilt his practice – the reception, the examination room, the laboratory – while adding a clip-on to the building for personal consultations. AVL took out the walls of his office and replaced them with organically-shaped partitions and furniture. These shapes create a more functional space. The furniture looks as if it has grown right there on the spot. The Practice forms a place where people feel welcome and free to discuss all kind of matters with the doctor. An extra parasite on the outside of the building – a crystal-like room – can be used for more intense and intimate conversations with the patients.

Fiberglass
200 x 100 x 100 cm

AVL’s inspirations often come from classical artworks whose qualities are more hidden. In earlier days, artists were dependent on patrons and their commissions. The church and wealthy families gave an assignment to make an artwork according to a special theme or occasion. Despite the constraints, artists managed to produce superior works by adopting a special style and by using a strong technique. These days, such commissions have all but disappeared; the new patrons – from collectors to the state – make other demands on the contemporary artist, who must make a work and create room to express themselves as well.

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

Plastic, fiberglass, steel
330 x 210 x 155 cm

In the large-scale installation The Technocrat human faeces is transformed into biogas. The one thousand participants in this production process lie on bunk beds with tubes attached to their anuses. They are fed constantly to guarantee a fresh supply of excrement. Alcohol keeps them sedated and happy. The biogas produced is used to cook food and distil alcohol, creating a perfect, circular system with man as a cog in the machine.

Fermenting Vessel with Man (2004) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020 – 2021
‘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, plastic
400 x 350 x 55 cm

Man as a miniscule cog in the machine. Only expected to consume and excrete. The Arschmänner are part of The Technocrat, a circular system that reduces man to a digestive tract. Alcohol and food go in, waste comes out and is turned into biogas, which — in turn — is used to cook and distil alcohol.

Aschmänner (2004) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020 – 2021
‘SlaveCity’, Zuecca Project Space, Venice (IT), 2016
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
‘Infernopolis’, Submarinewharf, Rotterdam (NL), 2010
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009
‘The Technocrat’, Sprengel Museum, Hannover (DE), 2004 – 2005

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

AVL’s inspirations often come from classical artworks whose qualities are more hidden. In earlier days, artists were dependent on patrons and their commissions. The church and wealthy families gave an assignment to make an artwork according to a special theme or occasion. Despite the constraints, artists managed to produce superior works by adopting a special style and by using a strong technique. These days, such commissions have all but disappeared; the new patrons – from collectors to the state – make other demands on the contemporary artist, who must make a work and create room to express themselves as well.

Mixed media
Diverse measurements

Contemporary design practice increasingly depends upon high tech. Designs are drawn on the computer and made by means of rapid prototyping. Once the prototype is complete, the object is manufactured far away in another country with cheap labour and then comes back. To counter this distant way of designing, AVL created Bad Furniture in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau. For Bad Furniture, the designer and the producer are one and the same person. Both the steel and the wood have been handcrafted. Love, tools and materials are combined; shape and passion go hand in hand.

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

Fiberglass

Location: private collection.

Hanging Michelangelo (2004) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘25 Years of the Falckenberg Collection’, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (DE), 2019 – 2020

Satellite des Sens was commissioned when the city of Lille carried the annual title of Cultural Capital of Europe in 2004. Eager to include children in the celebrations, the organizers asked AVL to create a mobile unit, which could travel around to different schools. Once parked, the unit welcomed 12 children – aged three to six – along with an adult companion, and invited them to take another kind of trip: an artistic discovery tour of the five senses. The children can hear, see, feel, smell and even taste their way through the spacious green caravan to become conscious about the body’s senses in a fun and informative way. The caravan’s exterior – which looks like a bright green, friendly monster – is an experience in itself, stimulating the 5 senses. Created in close collaboration with a team of specialists – trailer builders, engineers, sculptors, sound artists and pedagogues – AVL’s Satellite des Sens is a surrealistic dream object on wheels. Collection city of Lille

Sensory deprivation Collection Rainer Ganahl, New York

Fiberglass
110 x 180 x 90 cm

AVL’s inspirations often come from classical artworks whose qualities are more hidden. In earlier days, artists were dependent on patrons and their commissions. The church and wealthy families gave an assignment to make an artwork according to a special theme or occasion. Despite the constraints, artists managed to produce superior works by adopting a special style and by using a strong technique. These days, such commissions have all but disappeared; the new patrons – from collectors to the state – make other demands on the contemporary artist, who must make a work and create room to express themselves as well.

Mixed media
Diverse measurements

The Technocrat is a closed circuit of food, alcohol, excrement and energy. In this system, the human burgher is the biological cogwheel that generates enough raw material to produce not only valuable biogas used for cooking food but also alcohol to keep the humans functioning. The Technocrat consists of four parts that come with instructions. By following these instructions, anyone can learn to operate The Technocrat.

Mini Technocrat Mini Biogas Installation, Collection Prada Foundation, Milan Mini Feeder, 2004 Mini Alcoholator, 2003 Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterloo

Steel
60 x 98 x 105 cm

A crib made in the Art Nouveau style; it can be secured with padlock.

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

Mixed media
120 x 140 x 150 cm

Although The Technocrat and the Biogas Installation were made to be fully functional, these works were never tested (no burghers volunteered their services). Like the iPod, AVL’s I Faecal Experimental exploits miniaturization, albeit to test on a small scale the production of biogas from human excrement. The process was monitored, measured and improved; the experiment was a success.

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

Fiberglass
Diverse measurements

For Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel, which was designed by the MVRDV architectural team, AVL made a series of bathroom units for individual hotel rooms, along with two special music chambers: one for rock, the other for classical music. Both chambers are extra-large: family- or orgy-size.

Location: Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam (NL)

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

Watercolour on paper
33 x 46 cm

The Womb (2003) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Reality is Not What it Seems, Jousse Entreprise, Paris (FR), 2020

Enquiries via Jousse Entreprise

Steel, wood
1820 x 620 x 350 cm

The Disciplinator has a mathematical precision in its design, facilities and functions. Based on multiples of four, the elements are intended to be used 24 hours a day by a slave force of 72 inmates. There are 24 bunk beds that can be occupied three times a day; 24 places to eat with 24 cups and 24 dishes; 36 places to work and 36 files with which the slaves complete the useless task of reducing tree trunks to sawdust; and four toilets, four showers, four cups and eight toothbrushes (so two inmates can brush their teeth at the same time). Running like a clock, The Disciplinator produces little else beyond the passage of time and sawdust. In this nightmare, total functionality meets total futility. Designed and filled with the same precision as space, time becomes indistinguishable from an architectural blueprint.

Collection MAK Vienna

Fiberglass
540 x 220 x 85 cm

Kidney Bladder Combination is part of a series of colourful fibreglass sculptures that Atelier Van Lieshout produced in the early 00’s: a complete series of human internal organs. For Van Lieshout, the ‘Organ’ series were a way to take a step away from design, and to focus on the pure functionality of systems and materials instead. By taking away design choices and faring on either rationale or that which nature has given us, Van Lieshout researched what the hand of the artist actually means. These works are a stylized representation of the interior of the human body, almost perfect anatomical renditions of the organs that keep us going, the artist turned inside-out. In that sense ‘Organ’ series can also be seen as an attempt of the artist to get a grip on the mysterious but incredibly well-functioning system of the human body.

Kidney Bladder Combination (2003) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
‘Happy Forest’, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo (NL), 2005

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

Wood, steel
Various works

The series of sports equipment, Sport Nouveau, are the Art Nouveau answer to  the undesigned apparatuses in Sportopia, the installation that AVL made especially for the Sao Paulo Biennale last year. Sportopia measures six by twenty-three meters and consists of three different departments. The first is a sporting area with a variety of body-building equipment. On the other side of this installation, there is the sex department with equipment that fulfils a wide range of sexual needs, from group sex to bestiality. And on the upper floor, one finds the department dedicated to communal living and utopia.

Sport Nouveau (2003) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Design Art’, Kunsthal, Rotterdam (NL), 2014
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009

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

Fiberglass, steel
180 x 180 x 560 cm

This composting machine is part of The Technocrat, a closed system in which human bodies transform food and alcohol into biogas. It turns excess waste into compost for food crops.

Autocomposter (2003) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020 – 2021
‘ArtZuid’, Amsterdam (NL), 2017
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
‘Infernopolis’, Submarinewharf, Rotterdam (NL), 2010
‘Happy Forest’, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo (NL), 2005

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

Mixed media
Diverse measurements

The Feeder has a nostalgic design – a rounded and heavy shape that evokes German and other totalitarian designs from the 1930s. The Feeder is a multipart installation with containers, silos, storage for liquids, scales, steam boilers, cookers, water tanks and machines for cleaning vegetables like beets and potatoes and for cutting them.

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

Wood, steel
800 x 140 x 300 cm

These bunk beds can efficiently store up to 1000 burghers, who produce the biogas in The Technocrat.

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