Joep van Lieshout

Joep Van Lieshout was born in 1963 in Ravenstein, Netherlands. He studied at the Academy of Modern Art, Rotterdam; Ateliers '63 in Haarlem and Villa Arson in Nice. in 1995 he founded AVL (Atelier Van Lieshout) in Rotterdam that works in the field of design, architecture, and contemporary art. AVL got worldwide known for their installations of self-sufficiency-mobile homes. In 2001 AVL founded 'AVL ville', a 'free state' in Rotterdam's port, which offers housing to people who work in the studio. After a year, when they've shown that they're 'serious', they can also build a house according to their own design (materials paid by AVL). They will have to build the structure themselves and don't have to pay rent. The work of atelier Van Lieshout is part of the collection of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Centraal Museum, Utrecht Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven Centre of Contemporary Art, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Fnac, Paris, M.A.C., Marseille, Moma, New York Prada Foundation, Milan, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. His small notebook is hermetically sealed in a white ball of foam rubber