Pikkeboom
Fiberglass
330 x 400 x 300 cm
Located at the Triversum in Alkmaar, NL
Pioneer Set
Wood, steel
Diverse measurements
Several units with the Pioneer Set, AVL created a prefabricated farm and equipment, which handily fits into one 40-foot shipping container. Individuals and groups can travel around the world, set up the farm at any location and live self-sufficiently. The set consists of a farmhouse, a stable, a rabbit hutch, a chicken coop, a pig pen, several tools, equipment and fencing. Pioneer Set is a sturdy construction which has been built to function indefinitely, without any need for repairs and extensions. The only things that have to be added and replaced are the farm animals. AVL’s goal was to make a farm set for survival – not to create a farm driven by profit or in competition with other farms. Pioneer Set is a fully functional farm that appeals to the imagination in its concreteness. The set fulfils a nostalgic, utopian and even romantic idea of living: longing to go back to nature, to be independent or even not to be a part of this world.
Alfa Alfa
Alfa Romeo, steel
500 cm x 275 cm x 190 cm
Alfa Alfa (1999) began its life as an Alfa Romeo 164. The car had put in a considerable amount of time as an AVL company car before its engine was taken out to serve as a generator. The body was lovingly restored in 1999 and converted into a chicken coop. To transform the car into a coop, AVL undertook a thorough study of chickens: habits, health, habitat and psychological behaviour. The results of the study were integrated into the final design; proper adaptations were made. The chickens have a run and feeder outside the car; their nest is located in the trunk; which can be opened to collect the eggs with ease. Human conveniences are happily united with chicken welfare in the Alfa Alfa.
Alfa Alfa (1999) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Vrijstaat’, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse (NL), 2014
‘De Kannibaal’, Villa Zebra, Rotterdam (NL), 2011 – 2012
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
AVL Shaker Chair
Wood
50 x 50 x 71 cm
AVL artworks form the basis of AVL design pieces, made in unlimited editions in small factories, or in special editions in AVL’s workshop, AVL Shaker furniture is a good example of this. Already designed for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1998, AVL Shaker furniture is based on furniture made by the Shakers, a religious community from England that lived in the Northern parts of the USA from the end of the eighteenth century.
You can buy your own AVL Office Chair via our webshop (webshop hyperlinken met https://ateliervanlieshoutshop.com/)
Autocraat
Watercolour on paper
64 x 98 cm
Autocraat (1998) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Two Years’ Vacation, FRAC Lorraine, Metz (FR), 2020
AVL M80 Mortar
Steel
110 x 90 x 110 cm
AVL M80 Mortar is a simplified design of an existing mortar, which can be built with widely available materials, like ready-made tubes and simple tools that can be found in any metal workshop. This piece was made in an edition of ten, but one no longer exists because it was confiscated and destroyed (the other remaining nine are safe abroad). After the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was murdered in 2002, the Rotterdam police began to confiscate artworks with a destructive potential. AVL M80 Mortar fit the criteria. Other AVL works that have been confiscated temporarily or permanently by state officials, both inside and beyond the borders of the Netherlands, include: Pistolet Poignée Americaine 1995; Survival Knife 1995; and Jewellery 1995.
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Mixed media
1500 x 400 x 345 cm
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis commissioned AVL to make a mobile art lab: a youth centre on wheels that could bring the good word of art and culture to schools and people from poorer neighbourhoods throughout the state of Minnesota. AVL took on the task, with one condition: to add a darker side to the museum’s good intentions. The result was The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, a triptych structure composed of a trailer, a house and an extension. The good things are concentrated in the trailer, with its children-friendly activity areas for making art, music and theatre on the road. After touring the state, the trailer can come back to the museum’s Sculpture Park where it has a permanent place, docked into the Black House. Bad things live in the house; its imaginary ideal dweller is the Una Bomber, a prototype terrorist who survived alone in the forest and recycled materials to manufacture his bombs.
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis USA
Beercrates
Mixed media
Diverse measurements
After a day of hard work, Joep van Lieshout was sitting in his Atelier. Drinking a beer and looking at a beercrate he discovered that the size of a beer crate was the same as the size of the concrete tiles that were on the floor in his atelier. This new insight resulted in several installations with beercrates and concrete pavers. The coincidence that these two materials would fit this way, was enough for Joep van Lieshout to name it a sculpture. System and random play an important role in his work.
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
Modular Multi-Woman Bed, 2 stories & 3 stories
Wood
240 x 200 x 280 cm
King and Queen Size look like poor cousins to this bed, which can expand horizontally and even vertically into multilevel bunk beds. The simple modular system is infinitely reproducible with a multiplication of the basic 1.20 m frame. Like desire, this bed knows no limits.
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Toilet Units Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Fiberglass
355 x 540 x 390 cm
Despite its adversity to museum architecture, AVL took on the challenge of building an extension for sanitary spaces at Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Located in the glassed-in passage that links the main building to the museum restaurant, AVL’s toilet unit takes the shape of a large penis, which appears to penetrate the glass passage. The penis head, which provides an entrance to the restaurant pavilion from the museum garden is on one side of the passage; on the other are the two testicles, one for the women’s room and one for the men’s. While the interior is a light shade of green, the exterior has been covered in an army-like camouflage print, which blends into the surrounding museum and gardens.
Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Clip-On
Fiberglass
230 x 248 x 314 cm
The director of the Centraal Museum wanted a small extension in which to work, sleep and relax. AVL’s solution was to devise a piece that is mounted with large bolts onto the museum’s outside wall. Since AVL tends to build without detailed drawings, the works evolve inside the studio and often change in unforeseeable ways during the construction process. In this case, AVL began with the three basic elements of the extension – a table, a bench and a bed – and then started building the space around them. The final piece on the outside of the museum was not designed; its appearance is the result of the coincidental form of the space needed inside the structure. In collaboration with Klaar van der Lippe.
Collection Centraal Museum, Utrecht.
Autocrat
Fiberglass, wood
725 x 235 x 270 cm
Autocrat is a survival car for living in remote places – far away from civilized society without being deprived of its comforts. There’s a large kitchen and a sleeping area on the inside and another kitchen outside for heavier culinary work, like slaughtering animals. The car was designed and manufactured with the utmost autocracy in mind. Every effort was made to use homemade items and to avoid ready-made products. The hardware, water taps, the locks and the stove were all made from scratch. Autocrat plays a key role in AVL’s evolution, since the vehicle gave rise to the slaughter project. For this project, pigs were slaughtered on a farm according to traditional methods. All the parts were immediately used or preserved by drying, salting, smoking, pickling and other methods. The guide book A Manual (1997) shows more about the slaughter process, specifically how to kill a pig at home.
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Commune Bed
Watercolour
75 x 98 cm
Commune Bed (1998) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Two Years’ Vacation, FRAC Lorraine, Metz (FR), 2020 – 2021
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
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)
Infostand
Fiberglass
360 x 240 x 480 cm
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Cast Mobile
Mixed media
950 x 1130 x 320 cm
Modular House Mobile
Mixed media
700 x 215 x 310 cm
An AVL classic, this mobile home consists of three major parts: a chassis, a functional unit, with all the facilities needed by the driver/user (kitchen, heating, sleeping areas), and a cargo space. The cargo section can also be cleared and used as an office or as a dining room, if extra guests arrive for a feast. The doors of the cargo section have been replaced by a toilet and shower unit with hot and cold running water. Mobility meets modularity.
Collection Prada Foundation, Milan
La Bais-ô-Drôme
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
Mobile Home for Kröller-Müller
Mixed media
Mobile Home for Kröller-Müller is also fondly known as The Master and Slave Unit. The Master Unit forms the central block; the Slave Units can be clicked or screwed into any one of the five modular holes in the Master Unit. Each Slave Unit has a specific function – bedroom, sanitary space, kitchen, office – and can be easily moved from one hole to another in the Master Unit. With no fixed layout, no foundation, nor final form, The Master and Slave Unit breaks all the rules of traditional architecture. The absence of an overall design makes any rule infinitely expendable and flexible.
Mobile Home for Kröller-Müller (1995) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Happy Forest’, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo (NL), 2005
Collection: Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (NL)
Watch a video of Mobile Home for Kröller-Müller via this link.
Toilets
Fiberglass
55 x 40 x 50 cm
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Soft Edge
Fiberglass
Diverse measurements
The Soft Edge items of furniture – shelving units and tables – are hardly designed. they are largely based on standard wood measurements and finished in polyester with equally standard colours. these are not one-offs, but articles that are produced in unlimited series and delivered to order. Moreover Van Lieshout has developed his own system of standard measurements, whereby the pieces of furniture fit together and can be interlinked. Van Lieshout’s furniture looks much like the kind of cheap modern furniture on sale in furniture emporiums, but with one important difference. where that cheap standard furniture is made from laminated chipboard, frequently got up to look like something else – an expensive wood for example, – the crude polyester structure of Van Lieshout’s furniture makes no bones of the fact that it is made of artificial material. No Baudrillard-like simulacra these. They stand for what they are. Moreover they are stronger and prominently labelled as being ‘washable’. Indeed, that honesty, that absence of regret forms their aesthetic statement. What more could we want than cheap furniture that is also washable? What is wrong with that? What is the use of meaningless artworks that only get in the way? At least these pieces are useful! Paradoxically it is precisely these questions, addressed within the current debate, which justify a showcasing of Van Lieshout’s works in the art world.
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Hard Edge
Fiberglass
Diverse measurements
In the late eighties Atelier Van Lieshout exhibited its hard edge furniture at Fons Welters Gallery in Amsterdam. The art works, tables and shelving units, are made according to a modular system. The hard edge furniture is hardly ‘designed’ and expresses the wish of Joep van Lieshout to make the most minimal art as possible, that questions authenticity and uniqueness.
For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Operating Table
Wood, copper, iron, concrete
Operating Table (1984), one of Van Lieshout’s earliest sculptures, exhibits his persistent obsession with science and the creative use of ethics and knowledge gained through experimentation. It was made to cure people, but it looks like a worn out butcher’s block, customized for obscure pleasures.
Operating Table (1984) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘The CryptoFuturist and The New Tribal Labyrinth’, Pioneer Works, New York (USA), 2019
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009
Boat
Steel, gypsum, canvas, bone
420 x 70 x 210
During art school, Joep van Lieshout made several functional objects, one of them was Boat (1983). This work contained the contradiction between the rational and the irrational, as the boat is way too heavy to actually float.
Boat (1983) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Das Haus’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (DE), 2008 – 2009