DEAR READER,
Welcome to our second newsletter. In this newsletter there will be more information about our projects, some new work and of course the announcement of the 2003 AVL Pigheaded Prize winner. You can browse the topics using the following links:
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For more information about Atelier Van Lieshout, surf our website www.ateliervanlieshout.com or contact us through our office in Rotterdam. If you know anyone who might be interested to receive the AVL Newsletter on a regular basis, you can direct them to the news section of our website where they can subscribe to the list. Another possibility is to send us an e-mail containing their e-mail addresses.
THE AVL PRIZE FOR PIGHEADED ARTISTS
 
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And the winner is: Neil Minuk!
The annual Prize for Pigheaded Artists is awarded by Atelier Van Lieshout to artists who explicitly go their own way. The aim of the award is to recognise an artist who is not only the most self-determined but also the most uncompromising. This year, the one-headed jury was Wayne Bearwaldt, the Pigheaded director of The PowerPlant in Toronto.
Wayne's jury report
"Minuk is a sculptor/architect/teacher living in Winnipeg, Canada, whose bravado and daring in the face of financial, bureaucratic and material constraints are admirable to say the least. Minuk mines the fine lines, materials and inspired lighting of a bourgeois, modernist investigation in sculpture (as architecture), but always attempting to subvert, to take risks. Maybe there is a touch of the original impetus of the Bauhaus informing his bravado, a touch of the Mekons and the Fall and Iggy Pop, and a dose of discontent that swells up when living in a geographically isolated Canadian city like Winnipeg, or Vancouver (where Brian Jungen resides) or Lethbridge (the city that accommodated Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller for so many years). He knows these cities and many others, each providing a
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skew the middle class parameters of any domestic utopia. His buildings are fraught with slit back sides, voids that dissect a room, points of access (windows, skylights) where you least expect them and novel orientations of interior space to Nature. He is a builder of domestic scenes, of near-filmic sets that remain troubling and sometimes dangerous --- for their combination platforms and sheer plunging gaps into the earth or bowels of the building, disturbing colour schemes and make-shift assemblages of found and custom built materials and accessories. A Minuk project may not be completely finished for months on end but the process of creation is left open to viewers from the street, like a declaration of his imminent return, like the artist pissing to mark a coveted space. Minuk embodies a spirit of experimentation applied to a design-and-build industry rife with absurd safety and health standards. He demands a "triumph of will over reason" to make the difference and applies that motto to sculpture, architecture, design, cuisine and curatorial work (as director-curator of the University of Manitoba School of Architecture gallery). Minuk is thrilled and honoured to be chosen as the Most Pigheaded Artist for 2003!"

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The Most Pigheaded Project
Neil Minuk's most Pigheaded project is the house that he built for his family. It is a very dangerous house for both his wife and his new-born baby as well as for visitors. The front entrance, which is lit at night, is a series of slippery boards that traverse an overgrown front yard. The courtyard's incomplete deck is accessed through two patio doors, with one bridging over an one-storey drop. A laundry chute - three storeys tall - is an open hole in the middle of the second floor hall. The staircases both up and down have no handrail nor safety enclosure.
Neil's house project is Pigheaded for a number of reasons: it jeopardises people's safety for an experientially-rich and aesthetically-pure environment; it also puts the finger on today's building practises that are becoming more and more limited due to too many limitations and misplaced concerns for public health and order.
The Pigheaded Prize
The prize consists of a polyester trophy and an amount of 7000,- in cash. For more info about the AVL Prize see our press releases of 15 September 2003 and 6 November 2003.
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VIVE LA FRANCE
In Holland we say: "France would be the most beautiful country, if only it weren't for the French". This prejudice may be true, but we really received some very interesting exhibitions and project offers, such as the Satellite des Sens (Satellite of the Senses), a wild potato-style-mobile-home in which small children can have inspiring and scary experiences. All different kinds of senses can be experienced in this mobile trailer, smelling, touching, tasting, hearing and seeing. The Satellitte des Sens is commissioned by the city of Lille for their project Lille 2004 Cultural Capital of Europe and has been designed by AVL designer Herman de Jongh.
Centre d'art de Bretigny commissioned the Edutainer which is produced by AVL designer Harm Verhagen. It consists of two twenty-foot shipping containers that are welded together and fitted with doors, windows and a large lounge tank. Finished with crude wood and primitive furniture, the interior can be used for educational projects and workshops at the Centre d'art de Bretigny.
In the same centre we will do a show that opens on October 12th when we will present a large installation called The Feeder which is part of an even larger installation named The Technocrat. This work will consist of a biogas installation, an industrial alcohol production unit and bunk beds for at least 1000 people. The Feeder is a big machine that automatically produces cheap and crude food with a maximum output of faeces. Food and alcohol are administered in measured and calculated quantities with a pump and a distribution system outfitted with 1000 hoses to meet the needs of the biogas installation and to keep the people happy. More on the Technocrat in coming newsletters.
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NEW WORK FROM ATELIER VAN LIESHOUT
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The Disciplinator
This a metal cage construction measuring approximately six by eighteen meters - recalls both the compactness of the submarine and the calculated efficiency of a concentration camp. The installation has four sections, which are organised as multiples of four. The sleeping department with twenty-four beds can be used in three shifts and thus provides places for seventy-two inhabitants. The food department has twenty-four places at a table with twenty-four plates, mugs and spoons. There are thirty-six places in the labour area where inhabitants perform intensive
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labour tasks and produce sawdust from four tree trunks using thirty-six files. There are four toilets, four showers, four sinks and eight toothbrushes. The Disciplinator was first shown at the Cape Helder exhibition in Den Helder last summer.
The Human Organs
These organs are large and stylised versions of what we find in our body. Inspired by medical anatomy, the sculptures are exhibited separately or in combination. There is the urine system (with plug-in male and female genitals), digestion system (which shows the stomach, liver, bowels and its contents) and of course the reproductive system. This work not only reflects the complexity of the body but also tries to unveil the beauty and the essence of life.
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UPCOMING AND ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
Utopia Station, La Biennale di Venezia, Italy.
15/6/03 – 2/11/03 | group show
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My Small Company, Contemporary Art Center, Meymac, France.
6/9/03 – 14/12/03 | group show
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City Utopias, Bremen, Germany.
20/9/03 - 26/10/03 | group show
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Stoelendans, Galerie Yksi, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
10/10/03 - 16/01/04 | group show
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Atelier Van Lieshout, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brétigny-sûr-Orge, France.
12/10/03 - 12/01/04 | solo show
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Introducing Time in Design, Entre'Act, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
16/10/03 - 17/10/03 | group show
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Outlook, Athens, Greece.
24/10/03 – 25/1/04 | group show
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Utopie van de Periferie, Aalst, Belgium.
15/11/03 - 15/2/04 | group show
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Hotel Hotel, Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria.
19/11/03 - 16/1/04 | group show
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Kunst Woont, CBK, Groningen, the Netherlands.
22/11/03 - 24/01/04 | group show
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Gallery show, Giň Marconi Gallery, Milan, Italy.
January 2004 | solo show
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Gallery show, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria.
March 2004 | solo show
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Gallery show, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA.
May 2004 | solo show
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UPCOMING AND ONGOING COMMISSIONS
Satellite des Sens
Mobile unit for Euralille, Lille 2004 France.
The Scientists
Sculpture group Fachhochschule, Konstanz Germany.
The Edutainer
Education container for workshops Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brétigny-sűr-Orge, France.
The Unification
Sculpture group, Oss - Ravestein.
Medical practise Van Sint Fiet
Refurbishment of a doctor's practise, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Kingsdale School Canon
Installation in the auditorium of the Kingsdale School, London United Kingdom.
Exhibition furniture for MVRDV
Cité des Sciences & L'industrie, Paris France.
Theatre of life
Door and window refurbishment of theatre "de Kriekelaar", Brussels Belgium.
Modular Bathroom Unit
Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam (in collaboration with MVRDV).
Teutopia
A large scaffolding piece about Munich and its past, Munich Germany.
NEXT NEWSLETTER
AVL's next newsletter will be out in January 2004 with the latest news on our projects, exhibitions and commissions. As a subscriber to the AVL Newsletter mailing list you will receive the next issue automatically. If you know anyone who might also be interested to receive the AVL Newsletter on a regular basis, you can direct them to the news section of our website where they can subscribe to the list. Another possibility is to send us an e-mail containing their e-mail addresses.
If you nolonger appreciate our news updates you can unsubscribe from our mailing list by using the following link to the subscription form.
For more information about Atelier Van Lieshout, surf our website www.ateliervanlieshout.com or contact us through our office in Rotterdam.
Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam, October 2003.
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