Atelier Van Lieshout is inaugurating the Submarine Wharf with the spectacular exhibition Infernopolis. In the 5000m2 space Atelier Van Lieshout has created a terrifying setting in which medical instruments, vacuum pumps, silos, skulls, skeletons, and giant sperm cells and bodily organs are the main protagonists. Two enormous installations, ‘The Technocrat’ and ‘Cradle to Cradle’, are installed amid a forest of existing and new sculptures. Take the Aqualiner ferry to the harbour and enjoy art with a view of the river Maas!

Endless circulation
At 'Infernopolis' you can move among sinister installations and tableaux in which the distinctions between good and evil, life and death, and reality and fiction are erased. Atelier Van Lieshout’s fascination with systems is clearly manifest in the art work The Technocrat (2003-2004), which comprises all manner of apparatus, containers, beds and distillation vats. Together they form a closed circuit of food, alcohol, excrement and energy. Cradle to Cradle (2009) takes the principle that human waste can be food to the extreme. Looking at this art work, it quickly becomes clear that this machine recycles everything, even people.

Vision of the future
The exhibition in the Submarine Wharf contains Atelier Van Lieshout’s most recent sculptures, which have never previously been exhibited. These works illustrate the evolution of a new culture resulting from a society of over-consumption and scarce resources. In this culture we see a harshening of relations between people and an increased will to survive. Through battle scenes and a large, abstracted cannon (WW III, 2010) Atelier Van Lieshout provides a glimpse of a possible future. The sculpture Cascade by Atelier Van Lieshout, recently placed at Churchillplein in Rotterdam illustrates this theme as well.

Submarine Wharf
The exhibition in the Submarine Wharf is a partnership between the Port of Rotterdam and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The Submarine Wharf, built between 1929 and 1938, is comparable in size to the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London. For the next five years, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen will organise a different exhibition each year at this extraordinary location. Tickets to the exhibition are for sale at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, including a ticket for the Aqualiner, which leaves for the harbour every hour from the centre of Rotterdam.

Joep van Lieshout
Joep van Lieshout (1963, Ravenstein) lives and works in Rotterdam. Since the eighties he produces objects in polyester, the material that would become his trademark in subsequent years. In 1995 he founded Atelier Van Lieshout, undermining the myth of the individual artistic genius. Atelier Van Lieshout has attained international recognition for objects that occupy the middle ground between art, architecture and design.

To do, to watch
All visitors receive a complimentary booklet with an extensive essay about the exhibition. On July 10th, Joep van Lieshout will be interviewed in the exhibition (in English). Infernopolis is accompanied by a debate on cradle to cradle on September 9th (in English). More information, check News on this website. The museum's television program Boijmans TV dedicated an episode to the artist Joep van Lieshout, you can watch it on ArtTube [arttube.boijmans.nl], the museum's online video channel. On ArtTube, you can also watch a film about the Submarine Wharf and the exhibition.