
Annoncering


Joep van Lieshout: Well, one of the recurring themes in my work is a strong interest in systems – economical systems and political systems, but also the human body, which I believe is a perfect system. From 2005 to 2008, I made a series of works which represented the human body, but also a complete series of human internal organs, ranging from heart and brain to liver, rectrum and male and female sex organs. The CasAnus is part of that series, and takes its shape from the human digestive system. Starting with the tongue, continuing to the stomach, moving through the small and the large intestine and exiting through the anus.
Annoncering
While CasAnus is anatomically correct, the last part of the large intestine has been inflated to a humongous size to hold a hotel room.Wow. How did you build it? What materials is it made out of?
We built it in our workshop, Atelier Van Lieshout, and then had it installed on site. It’s made of wood, PU foam and covered with a naturalistic colored layer of fiberglass-reinforced polyester. This material is our studio’s trademark.

Only a few months. The studio is quite used to working on large-scale projects and commissions. This summer, we built a 40-foot-high steel structure that combined an artwork, a blast furnace and a dwelling. We’ve also made a human-powered sawmill/milking machine and cheese factory and many other artworks.How has the critical and public reaction to the CasAnus been?
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Guests love to stay inside a piece of art, especially one in such an isolated, quiet location. It’s still a darling of the press even eight years after the project was completed.How many people stay inside the hotel every year?
Anywhere between 200 and 250 people.

The BarRectum is quite similar in idea to the CasAnus, except that it contains a bar instead of a hotel room and has a number of hatches which can be opened to serve drinks. It still belongs to Atelier Van Lieshout and has been exhibited worldwide, always serving as a bar at the same time.Do you have any regrets about building a giant anus in the middle of a field?
Yes – not keeping it for ourselves!Follow Benjamin on Twitter.
