With its intended effectiveness, The Disciplinator, a stifling, closed construction of steel and wood, gives rise to associations of a labor camp. 72 people are working, sleeping, and eating in this elaborate system with only one single goal: producing sawdust by filing four tree trunks with all in all 36 files. With an unusual directness, The Disciplinator visualizes the examination of political and social systems by the studio Atelier Van Lieshout—the installation can be interpreted as a warning signal against the principle of exploitation. The work of the studio Atelier Van Lieshout is open in its meaning: starting from functional objects and units it transitions to independent, autonomous structures which are guided by the utopian goal of absolute freedom and are subsequently turned into their opposite.
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