Atelier Van Lieshout

VIENNA - This spring, as part of the OUT SITE programme, MUMOK in collaboration with the MuseumsQuartier Vienna is showing three "walk-into" sculptures by the Dutch art collective Atelier Van Lieshout : the "BikiniBar" (2006) - a female torso dressed in a bikini; "Darwin" (2008) - a dark blue sperm; and the "BarRectum" (2005) - a multi-functional, real, oversized anal orifice.

The "walk-into" sculptures by the collective founded in 1995 by Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout, thematize the functionality and aesthetics of sculpture in public spaces in an inventive and humorous way. Amorphous forms that connect up the issues of housing, provisioning, waste disposal, locomotion, and fertilization form the core of Atelier Van Lieshout"s works. Alongside the ready-to-use furniture such as functioning berths, living capsules, or bar counters, the objects often fulfil communal functions such as that of a field hospital or medical laboratory.

Over and above this, Atelier Van Lieshout explored the possibilities of autonomous social development with the independent city state, AVLVille, founded in 2001 in Rotterdam harbour and prohibited by the authorities.

The "BarRectum" will not only be used by the MUMOK in collaboration with the MuseumsQuartier Vienna, but it will also serve other creative people as a place for holding events and presenting art projects.

People look into a giant, walk-in sculpture of a woman's bikini-clad torso in front of Vienna's MuseumsQuartier cultural complex. The creation is the work of a group of artists led by Dutchman Joep van Lieshout. It is part of an exhibit of the city's MUMOK museum of modern and contemporary art. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak.