Programme
Onwards until 31 Dec '27
Disco Inferno — Atelier Van Lieshout
This exhibition is part of Brutus Base and is currently accessible by appointment only.
Explanation
A total work of art of unprecedented scale is being created on the Keileweg in Rotterdam. Here, Atelier Van Lieshout is constructing a labyrinth in which the complete oeuvre of artist Joep van Lieshout comes together, laying the foundation for the new Brutus Museum. Works spanning more than forty years bring the saga of Atelier Van Lieshout to life, with new pieces being continuously added.
Until the official unveiling, the spaces of Brutus Base can only be visited by appointment. During a guided tour of approximately one hour, you will be introduced to the world of Atelier Van Lieshout and visit the following locations:
Every last Thursday of the month, Brutus Base organizes a guided tour to visit the Brutus Base spaces, including the Brutus Garden, Disco Inferno, Engineer’s Bedroom, Kathedraal and an ever-changing exhibition space with works by Atelier Van Lieshout. The guided tour costs €15 per person and hosts up to 20 people (please note that this ticket only grants access to the spaces listed here, and is not an entree ticket to the Brutus Museum). The tour will proceed subject to a minimum of ten registrations.
There is also a chance that you may encounter Joep van Lieshout himself at work.
Costs for groups of up to 15 people:
Schools: €150 excl. VAT
Private groups: €225 excl. VAT
Weekdays (Mon–Fri, 09:00–16:30)
To book a tour or for further enquiries, please contact Fay Goyarts via info@ateliervanlieshout.com or by phone on +31 (0)10 2440971.
‘Disco Inferno’ is an industrial monster with an insatiable appetite for its own products. Forty years of artistic research, experimentation and incessant output inform this Gesamtkunstwerk, which can be read as a self-portrait of Van Lieshout as obsessive system builder, seer, inventor, architect, maker of machine sculptures, engineer and shifter of boundaries.
Like all AVL works, ‘Disco Inferno’ is an exercise in self-sufficiency. It is a self-sustaining universe – a labyrinth of countless sculptures, handmade machines, hybrid engines, furniture, other artists’ work, utopias and dystopias – “all stemming from the hammer, the ultimate instrument of change”. The industrial monster is composed of giant, in-house designed and built machines, a spaghetti mash of generators, pumps and shredders, all propelled by a bizarre range of sculpted engines that can run on almost anything (vegetable oil, butter or homemade pyrolysis oil). It is a spectacle of industry and its potential in never-ending motion, yet the work’s only real purpose is to keep going – and to heat the jacuzzi in ‘The Happy End of Everything Spa’. Accompanied by the bubbling and pounding of all these machines, “as long as we have oil or waste plastic, we can keep dancing on the edge of the volcano”. JVL
With ‘Disco Inferno’, Van Lieshout continues to sculpt a new material vocabulary. Atelier Van Lieshout gained international recognition for living sculptural installations that function to assert or question independence; inventing objects, structures, machines and thematic bodies of work that annihilate the boundaries between art, architecture and design. In Van Lieshout’s distinctive language, everything is an experiment in what “could be”. AVL’s transgressive practice dissects and invents systems to flirt with power, autarky, politics, fertility, life, sex and death.
Explanation
A total work of art of unprecedented scale is being created on the Keileweg in Rotterdam. Here, Atelier Van Lieshout is constructing a labyrinth in which the complete oeuvre of artist Joep van Lieshout comes together, laying the foundation for the new Brutus Museum. Works spanning more than forty years bring the saga of Atelier Van Lieshout to life, with new pieces being continuously added.
Until the official unveiling, the spaces of Brutus Base can only be visited by appointment. During a guided tour of approximately one hour, you will be introduced to the world of Atelier Van Lieshout and visit the following locations:
Disco Inferno
The Engineer’s Bedroom
Sanitas Futurum (work in progress) in the Cathedral
The Atelier Van Lieshout studio, where all artworks are created
Brutus Garden
Every last Thursday of the month, Brutus Base organizes a guided tour to visit the Brutus Base spaces, including the Brutus Garden, Disco Inferno, Engineer’s Bedroom, Kathedraal and an ever-changing exhibition space with works by Atelier Van Lieshout. The guided tour costs €15 per person and hosts up to 20 people (please note that this ticket only grants access to the spaces listed here, and is not an entree ticket to the Brutus Museum). The tour will proceed subject to a minimum of ten registrations.
There is also a chance that you may encounter Joep van Lieshout himself at work.
Costs for groups of up to 15 people:
Schools: €150 excl. VAT
Private groups: €225 excl. VAT
Weekdays (Mon–Fri, 09:00–16:30)
To book a tour or for further enquiries, please contact Fay Goyarts via info@ateliervanlieshout.com or by phone on +31 (0)10 2440971.
‘Disco Inferno’ is an industrial monster with an insatiable appetite for its own products. Forty years of artistic research, experimentation and incessant output inform this Gesamtkunstwerk, which can be read as a self-portrait of Van Lieshout as obsessive system builder, seer, inventor, architect, maker of machine sculptures, engineer and shifter of boundaries.
Like all AVL works, ‘Disco Inferno’ is an exercise in self-sufficiency. It is a self-sustaining universe – a labyrinth of countless sculptures, handmade machines, hybrid engines, furniture, other artists’ work, utopias and dystopias – “all stemming from the hammer, the ultimate instrument of change”. The industrial monster is composed of giant, in-house designed and built machines, a spaghetti mash of generators, pumps and shredders, all propelled by a bizarre range of sculpted engines that can run on almost anything (vegetable oil, butter or homemade pyrolysis oil). It is a spectacle of industry and its potential in never-ending motion, yet the work’s only real purpose is to keep going – and to heat the jacuzzi in ‘The Happy End of Everything Spa’. Accompanied by the bubbling and pounding of all these machines, “as long as we have oil or waste plastic, we can keep dancing on the edge of the volcano”. JVL
With ‘Disco Inferno’, Van Lieshout continues to sculpt a new material vocabulary. Atelier Van Lieshout gained international recognition for living sculptural installations that function to assert or question independence; inventing objects, structures, machines and thematic bodies of work that annihilate the boundaries between art, architecture and design. In Van Lieshout’s distinctive language, everything is an experiment in what “could be”. AVL’s transgressive practice dissects and invents systems to flirt with power, autarky, politics, fertility, life, sex and death.
Exhibition until 13 Dec '26
Armchair Anarchist — by Atelier Van Lieshout
Armchair Anarchist is open by appointment only.
Brutus Base welcomes you into the world of the Armchair Anarchist, an exhibition by Atelier Van Lieshout in which the studio’s art and design are combined with works of other artists from the ProBrutus Collection, like Ossip and Felix Burger. This installation explores the mixed morals of would-be idealists such as the anarchist. “From the comfort of his armchair, the anarchist sits on his high horse, sipping champagne and procrastinating real action”. Though surrounded by an arsenal of weapons, they are left to gather dust. Why does he not take action?
Non-hierarchical forms of organization, central to anarchist thought, are recurring themes in AVL’s work. Self-organization plays a key role in the parallel worlds they construct. Armchair Anarchist reflects on the vacuum at the heart of these ideals. Bringing together different generations of Atelier Van Lieshout’s work, the installation unfolds as a living room in their signature style: counterintuitive, paradoxical, and laced with humor.
The exhibition is part of the Brutus Base program that focuses on the realization of projects by Atelier Van Lieshout within Brutus, in dialogue with art by like-minded artists from the permanent collection – The ProBrutus Collection. Armchair Anarchist is open by appointment only. To book a tour, you can reach out to info@ateliervanlieshout.com
Brutus Base welcomes you into the world of the Armchair Anarchist, an exhibition by Atelier Van Lieshout in which the studio’s art and design are combined with works of other artists from the ProBrutus Collection, like Ossip and Felix Burger. This installation explores the mixed morals of would-be idealists such as the anarchist. “From the comfort of his armchair, the anarchist sits on his high horse, sipping champagne and procrastinating real action”. Though surrounded by an arsenal of weapons, they are left to gather dust. Why does he not take action?
Non-hierarchical forms of organization, central to anarchist thought, are recurring themes in AVL’s work. Self-organization plays a key role in the parallel worlds they construct. Armchair Anarchist reflects on the vacuum at the heart of these ideals. Bringing together different generations of Atelier Van Lieshout’s work, the installation unfolds as a living room in their signature style: counterintuitive, paradoxical, and laced with humor.
The exhibition is part of the Brutus Base program that focuses on the realization of projects by Atelier Van Lieshout within Brutus, in dialogue with art by like-minded artists from the permanent collection – The ProBrutus Collection. Armchair Anarchist is open by appointment only. To book a tour, you can reach out to info@ateliervanlieshout.com