Caen has been subject to a very tumultuous twentieth century: a city on the frontline, its citizens being faced with difficult choices, either to stay but possibly lose their lives or leave all they know and care for and head out into an unknown future. For the Place Saint-Saveur, Atelier Van Lieshouthas created a sculpture that symbolizes this ever-present human dilemma: the choice between the known and the unknown, between security and insecurity, between tradition and progress.
For Place Saint-Saveur, we proposed a sculptural group consisting of human-like shapes, symbolizing the ‘Bourgeois de Caen’. The group appears to be huddled together, like a line of figures that flow over in each other like a Laocoon, sometimes realistic, sometimes abstract. The figures are not heavy, however, but light, airy; people will be able to see trough them and walk between them.
The figures symbolize the different emotions that people go through in a time of conflict: heroism, fear, rebellion, survival, flight, compassion, cowardice, joy, loneliness – a mass of humans, insecure, doubtful and chaotic. Opposed to this, the statue of Louis XVI seems to symbolize security, power and order. At the same time, however, his image is a leftover from the Ancient-Regime.
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.
The Burghers symbolizes the ever-present human dilemma: the choice between the known and the unknown, between security and insecurity, between tradition and progress. The monumental sculpture draws from a universal and timeless theme: what does one do in an emergency situation? The figures, huddled together like a Laocoon, represent the different emotions that people go through in a time of conflict: heroism, fear, rebellion, survival, escape, compassion, cowardice, joy, loneliness – a mass of humans, insecure, doubtful and chaotic.
Steel, produced in blast furnaces, was the most important product of the Industrial Revolution, and has laid the foundation of our current wealth. Therefore, Atelier Van Lieshout realized the artwork Blast Furnace. Blast Furnace, a majestic machinery measuring 12 by 24 by 11 meters, seems to grow like an organic organism. The steel monster evokes an image of the archetypical industrial relicts of the early 20th century, which is given a new, utopian meaning by Atelier Van Lieshout. Blast Furnace will be driven by manpower and simple mechanics. Floors and alcoves will be installed in the innards of the machine: a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom. Human activity takes place throughout the entire installation. It is as if the Tribe of the Metalworkers consciously choose to become one with the furnace, and to live amidst the noise, dirt and dust. Instead of wanting to return to Nature, this tribe wants to return to Industry, to raw materials, to simple products, to social cohesion.
For the near future, Atelier Van Lieshout foresees the emergence of a new tribal world, a primitive society where production takes centre stage. This world will see a return to farming and industry – which currently both have been banished from our society – and a re-establishment of our relationship with materials – which now has been lost. In this new world, ethics will be of little importance. Instead, rituals will be re-valued, and will offer the tribes of the future guidance.
Atelier Van Lieshout is taking an advance on this future, and is creating all necessary equipment for the imaginary tribes, ranging from items of worship and sacrifice to objects for daily use, dwellings and machines. All these artworks together make the huge Gesamtkunstwerk that is New Tribal Labyrinth.
Barbaar is part of a series of Funnelheads. The funnelhead is a symbol for the human state of being, being force-fed physically as well as mentally; a
frequently recurring theme in the works of Atelier Van Lieshout.
For the near future, Atelier Van Lieshout foresees the emergence of a new tribal world, a primitive society where production takes centre stage. This world will see a return to farming and industry – which currently both have been banished from our society – and a re-establishment of our relationship with materials – which now has been lost. In this new world, ethics will be of little importance. Instead, rituals will be re-valued, and will offer the tribes of the future guidance.
Atelier Van Lieshout is taking an advance on this future, and is creating all necessary equipment for the imaginary tribes, ranging from items of worship and sacrifice to objects for daily use, dwellings and machines. All these artworks together make the huge Gesamtkunstwerk that is New Tribal Labyrinth.
Farming is one of a pillars of the New Tribal Labyrinth. Atelier van Lieshout will create farms for the future, but also from the pre-history, the year zero, the Middle Ages, the Golden Age, and post-war modernist utopia. The final goal is to create a larger than life farm which consist of all the individual farms, connected by tunnels, corridors, doors and hatches. By entering this farm, visitors will engage in labyrinth-like time-travel through the ages, past history, hope, family, utopia, self sufficiency, design and deviancy.
Hagioscoop is the first of this series, a large cross-shaped diorama set in the imaginary date of “year zero”. It consists of four parts: an large Adobe style kitchen, cave-like sleeping quarters, a deconstructivist carpenters workshop and a rough stable. The farm can be entered on the inside, but also viewed from the outside through small openings – comparable to the small windows which can be found in some churches, which enabled outcasts to witness the celebration of mass from outside – the so-called Hagioscoop.
The Insect Experimental gives us a preview of the future of farming, an installation for breeding insects for consumption purposes, which is at the same time utopian, pragmatic and exploitative. Mature insects will be held in the container at the top end of the Insect Breeder, the bottom of which is covered in wire mesh. When they lay eggs, these will fall down into the hatching tunnel. After the eggs have hatched into maggots, these will have to find their way to the container at the bottom end of the Insect Breeder, and then onwards to the harvesting unit, where only the strongest, most intelligent ones will arrive. The insects can be given extra incentives by using light, smell and colour. All of these can be adjusted by the farmer, allowing him to optimize the process and breed only the most superintelligent insects. A drying cabinet, Solar Dryer, is also part of the installation. Inside the Solar Dryer, insects and maggots can be conserved using different temperatures.
Insect Breeder, 2012 Solar Dryer, 2012
Atelier van Lieshout developed a high tech farm for the future called the Insect Farm, where insects will be bred as high protein, low carbon foot print solution for feeding the increasing world population.
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
The New Tribal Labyrinth wants to reinterpret and revalue the factories and installations of the Industrial Revolution, by creating large scale sculptural/technical installations, made in an improvised style with contemporary materials: blast furnaces and foundries, refineries and chemical installations textile mills and ceramics workshops. At first sight, it is not directly clear if these are part of a post-apocalyptic survival strategy, or instead represent a new utopian way of durable production.
Naphta Cracker is production unit that shows the complex process of making plastics. At the same time it wants to tell more about the value of this specific material, as plastics are made in a complicated way and out of scarce raw materials. Made in a neo-industrial style, it is hard to define in what era the artwork dates from: post-apocalyptic, Soviet, or an earlier past?
The reinvention of the industrial revolution wants to make a link with, but at the same time transcend the utopian, socialist “Arts and Crafts” movement that tried to close the gap between designer, producer and user. In analogy with this movement, which set out to re-establish the value of craftsmanship, AVL will create prototype chairs, by hand.. The chairs spring directly from the heart, from the head, without making use of a design, a try square or a measurement tape. If creating a chair takes more than a single day, its’ design is considered faulty and the prototype will be disposed of.
Greenery, 2012; Brick, 2012; Pudding, 2012; 100% Cyan, 2012; Orange, 2012; Lychee, 2012
This series of three monumental canons shows different techniques developed throughout the past century. Ranging from the artisanal look of the WWI canon to the stylized WWIII canon. these monumental heroic works indirectly refer to Joep’s depiction of a terryfying vision of the future with food scarcity, war and epidemics.
Where groups of people start organizing themselves in tribes instead of countries and nationalities, a new tribal world order will occur. In the meantime AVL will create objects, installations and equipment for this imaginary tribe: monuments to be worshipped, cannibalistic sacrificial equipment, daily objects and designs.
StrongMen Stew Stove Red, 2012; StrongMen Stew Stove Orange, 2012
The New Tribal Labyrinth is an ongoing series of work in which recurring themes like the organization of labour, the structures of power and revolution are linked to the end of the worlds´ resources and subsequent self sufficiency. It suggests a new world order, a society inhabited by imaginary tribes. This world will see a return to farming and industry – which currently both have been banished from our society – and a re-establishment of our relationship with materials – which now has been lost. Rituals will be re-valued, and will play in important role in society once more. Thus, objects for farming, industry and rituals are the three main bodies of work of this huge ”Gesamtkunstwerk”.
Additionally, New Tribal Labyrinth provides ritual objects, totem-like sculptures and dwellings for the tribes of the future. These include large scale projects like The Original Dwelling, as well as smaller totems, icons and images of worship, like The Farm, which was the starting point of the New Tribal Labyrinth.
Industry used to play a vital role, as it enabled societies based on farming to reach a higher level of development and prosperity. Nowadays everything that reminds us of physical production has been banned from our society, and has subsequently been removed from our sight. In fact, all the things which we find undesirable seems to have been banished. Farm animals disappear into anonymous mega-stables, prisons and mental institutions get moved out to remote business parks. The only thing left in our sanitized world is consumption: retail, recreation, restaurants. Industry and production should be a part of our society, as should be manual labour, pollution and hardship. As a society we cannot just consume and use, real products should be made and grown.
Minimal Smelter, 2012 Primitive Smelter, 2011
Dwelling is an imaginary tribal dwelling; the work takes humankind back to its origins, recalling a primitive state of being with the shape of a horse head. The sculpture is part of the New Tribal Labyrinth, an ongoing series of work in which recurring themes like the organization of labour, the structures of power and revolution are linked to the end of the worlds´ resources and subsequent self sufficiency. It suggests a new world order, a society inhabited by imaginary tribes. This world will see a return to farming and industry – which currently both have been banished from our society – and a re-establishment of our relationship with materials – which now has been lost. Rituals will be re-valued, and will play in important role in society once more. Thus, objects for farming, industry and rituals are the three main bodies of work of this huge ”Gesamtkunstwerk”.
The New Tribal Labyrinth is an ongoing series of work in which recurring themes like the organization of labour, the structures of power and revolution are linked to the end of the worlds´ resources and subsequent self sufficiency. It suggests a new world order, a society inhabited by imaginary tribes. This world will see a return to farming and industry – which currently both have been banished from our society – and a re-establishment of our relationship with materials – which now has been lost. Rituals will be re-valued, and will play in important role in society once more. Thus, objects for farming, industry and rituals are the three main bodies of work of this huge ”Gesamtkunstwerk”.
The New Tribal Labyrinth is an ongoing series of work in which recurring themes like the organization of labour, the structures of power and revolution are linked to the end of the worlds´ resources and subsequent self sufficiency. It suggests a new world order, a society inhabited by imaginary tribes. This world will see a return to farming and industry – which currently both have been banished from our society – and a re-establishment of our relationship with materials – which now has been lost. Rituals will be re-valued, and will play in important role in society once more. Thus, objects for farming, industry and rituals are the three main bodies of work of this huge ”Gesamtkunstwerk”.
For the near future, Atelier Van Lieshout foresees the emergence of a new tribal world, a primitive society where production takes centre stage. This world will see a return to farming and industry – which currently both have been banished from our society – and a re-establishment of our relationship with materials – which now has been lost. In this new world, ethics will be of little importance. Instead, rituals will be re-valued, and will offer the tribes of the future guidance.
Atelier Van Lieshout is taking an advance on this future, and is creating all necessary equipment for the imaginary tribes, ranging from items of worship and sacrifice to objects for daily use, dwellings and machines. All these artworks together make the huge Gesamtkunstwerk that is New Tribal Labyrinth.
– 2012 Panta Rhei, 2011 Beeld, 2012 Tribe, 2011 Block, 2011
Buffel is a tribal totem, representing Modern Man, sculpted from one block. Man and cage become one; the inanimate becomes animate; the human possesses the object, which in turn possesses the human. The work can be seen as a Möbius strip: a side with one surface and one boundary. The question remains, who controls it?
Hieronymus is part of a larger series of tribal sculptures, totem-like objects geared at worship, rituals, offerings. Hieronymus’ organic shapes evoke images of both man and beast, and refer to the fantastical forms and figures of Dutch painter Hiëronymusch Bosch. At the same time, in true AVL-fashion, the work has a functional quality to it, and balances on the boundary between sculpture piece and functional object.