AVL Ville/Atelier van Lieshout
http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com
AVL-Ville is the biggest work of art by Atelier van Lieshout to date. This free state is an agreeable mix of art environment and sanctuary, full of well-known and new works by AVL, with the special attraction that everything is fully operational. Not art to simply look at, but to live with, to live in and to live by.
Atelier van Lieshout
http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com/
Recently, AVL developed a style where the absence of design has become an important issue, using industrial materials such as galvanized steel tubes used for scaffolding, and sheets of unfinished plywood. Their raw functionality stands in contrast with the series of colourful polyester sculptures that AVL produced recently: human figures in various postures and actions, but also a complete series of human internal organs, ranging from heart, and brain to liver, rectum and the male and female sex organs.
The design of the Shaker furniture of Atelier van Lieshout can be viewed in the light of one of its famous projects: AVL-Ville. This autonomous free state in the harbours of Rotterdam showed a resemblance to the communities of the Shakers that lived in the Northern parts of the United States during the 19th century. The Shakers lived a completely self-sufficient and celibate life. Because of their religious background they isolated themselves from the outside world, and at the same time they survived by having their own systems in agriculture and craft work. The furniture they developed was highly innovative for those days and they considered the perfection of the final product as one of their life tasks.