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
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
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
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
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.