Dutch artist and designer Joep van Lieshout, Founder of Atelier Van Lieshout, worked with hospitality brand art’otel to create new works for their Amsterdam location, inspired by the theme titled ‘The Course of Life’.
The art pieces by Atelier Van Lieshout dotted around art’otel Amsterdam – which include sculptures, furniture designs and wall hangings – encourage guests to consider the forces that control and shape human lives. ‘The Course of Life’ theme is about the urge to explore, ideology and religion, the interplay between personal and collective needs, and the struggle to reproduce and live past our individual deaths.
Here, Joep van Lieshout discusses his unqiue approach to design and his work on the art’otel project.
What does Atelier Van Lieshout represent as a design company?
I would not typically define Atelier Van Lieshout as a design company. Atelier Van Lieshout can only be understood and described as unpredictable, unreliable [laughs], and we specialize in creating unwanted solutions. And that is the main difference with designers, who are very good at composing solutions to solve problems.
How did you become involved with art’otel Amsterdam?
I was introduced by an acquaintance and immediately started an interesting dialogue with art’otel about the possibilities of a semi-public space such as the one at art’otel [Amsterdam]. We were involved even before construction started, so we really had time to study the hotel and come up with interventions that create space for reflection about past, present and future.
Why did you feel compelled to work on this project?
I think hotels are interesting spaces. It has a diverse and wide variety of people, who seek to fulfill their most human needs: to sleep, eat, find pleasure. Inspired by this, is why I created the overarching theme: The Course of Life.
Can you tell us about some of the different pieces featured at art’otel Amsterdam?
Astronaut [2024] – Astronaut is on a roll and going places. But again, he’s stuck on a pedestal, go-to-bag at the ready and all. He is caught in limbo, as is reflected in the material used which looks simultaneously futuristic and fossilised.
Dancing Rabbits [2024] – Dancing Rabbits symbolises fertility and life’s very beginning. AVL’s Dancing Rabbits are trapped in a frame, welding them together no matter what. They might as well do a little dance or embrace each other for a kiss.
Puppet Hands [2024] – Free markets create incentives for self-interested people to act in the public interest. This is what the 18th-century philosopher Adam Smith famously called ‘the invisible hand’. No need for government intervention if the economy itself nudges people along.
Knights [2022] – These knights are loyal to the job at hand and completely guileless when it comes to its purpose. They look tough and lost at the same time. They are the friendly and slightly goofy guards of the gates to utopia, which they themselves will never enter.
First Supper Lamp [2024] – All endings have beginnings. So, the last supper, the climax of Christian eulogy, was preceded by a first supper. At this starting point, nothing was clear yet and things were meaningless. There’s even confusion about the absence of food.
What is your favorite space at art’otel Amsterdam?
I like the ‘living room’ of the hotel, which showcases a variety of sculptures and furniture. It gives a surreal feeling of being in a salon. Furthermore, it is a confusion room, with unexpected stuff.
What are you focused on for the rest of the year?
For the rest of the year, I would like to concentrate on inventing unwanted solutions for non-existing problems.
