Joep van Lieshout at LA MOCA

Wed, Mar 12 - Wed, Mar 12  2014

OTIS Architecture/Landscape/Interiors Department is pleased to announce the 2013-2014 Donghia Designer-in-residence lecture by Joep van Lieshout on March 12, 7.30pm at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA.

Atelier van Lieshout (AVL) is the internationally recognized studio and workshop, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, of Dutch artist and designer Joep van Lieshout. Initially working as a solo artist, Joep van Lieshout produced objects in bright coloured polyester – the material that would become his trademark – since the early eighties. In 1995 he founded Atelier Van Lieshout, leading a group of like-minded individuals in his search for creative and aesthetic solutions. Atelier Van Lieshout produces objects that balance on the boundary between art, architecture and design, encompassing sculpture and installations, buildings and furniture, utopias and dystopias. Recurring themes in the work of AVL are power, politics and autarky, as well as a fascination for life, its creation and its end in death. With this body of work, both autonomous and commissioned, AVL has attained international recognition. Over the past 25 years, AVL has exhibited at and/or been acquired by major art institutions and collections worldwide. AVL also produces commissions for and collaborates with architects such as Rem Koolhaas/OMA and MVRDV.

“Our most recent works reflect on the possible end of civilization as we know it. In our extremely advanced and complex society 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, changes which will lead to an emergence of various new cultures in the near future. AVL wants to raise 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.

These ideas are reflected on in The New Tribal Labyrinth, a new project in which recurring themes like work organization, power structures and revolution are connected with the theme of autarky, a proposal for a new world order. The New Tribal Labyrinth envisages an alternative society, inhabited by an imaginary tribe. The new ‘Gesamtkunstwerk‘ focuses on the three main pillars of this tribal society, farming, industry and ritual objects.”

07:00pm Open Seating 07:30pm Lecture 09:00pm Reception. This lecture and cocktail reception are free and open to the public.