atelier van lieshout 'slavecity' at the albion gallery, london

atelier van lieshout, luxurious female brother cut away, 2007 – mixed media

atelier van lieshout ‘slavecity’

the albion gallery, london presents a large show of ink on canvas drawings made by joep van lieshout, the founder of atelier van lieshout, along with several large models, made by atelier van lieshout. the show is all about life and work in slavecity, a dystopian metropolis. joep van lieshout has been developing this project since 2005.

…can be described as a sinister utopian project: rational, and highly profitable to the tune of 7.8 billion euros net profit per year. values, ethics, aesthetics, morality, food, energy, economics, organization, management and the market are turned upside-down, mixed and reformulated in the designs of this town for 200.00 inhabitants. an up-to-date concentration camp, slavecity benefits from the latest technology, participants work in the callcenter seven hours a day on tele-services such as customer service, itc, telemarketing and computer programming. after manning the headphones, participants must work for seven more hours to maintain the city. the participants’ efficiency is closely monitored; appropriate measures are taken if they drop below the optimally set level.

atelier van lieshout, headquarters, 2008 – fibreglass, foam

slavecity is the first ‘zero energy’ town of its size in the world and functions without imported mineral fuels or electricity. the energy needs of the city are covered by using biogas, solar power, wind energy and bio-diesel. everything is majestically recycled, even the participants themselves, whose vital organs are destined for transplantation instead of decaying into dust. since no waste products are produced, slavecity is a green town that does not squander the world’s limited resources.

built surface: 900.000 m total surface: 60 km participants: 200.000 employees: 3.500 total investment: 1860 million euros annual profit: 7800 million euros arts budget: 78 million euros

joep van lieshout, girls schematic, 2008 – ink and acrylic on canvas

together with the exhibition a publication of new and recent drawings of joep van lieshout will be presented. it is the first publication of drawings of joep van lieshout (19 color and 64 b&w illustrations). the book features a conversation between joep van lieshout and winy maas, architect and one of the founders of architect office MVRDV, based in rotterdam. slavecity the book is published by albion, london and will be available later this month.

atelier van lieshout: http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com albion gallery: http://www.albion-gallery.com

designboom interview with joep van lieshout (2007)