AVL describes the selection process as follows: ‘Old, crippled, sick and bad tasting people will be recycled in a biogas digester, while the healthy, not so clever will be recycled in the meat processing factory.

SlaveCity’s potential residents are selected upon entry. The infrastructure of SlaveCity has been fully worked out on paper and in models and objects, and includes universities, brothels, a hospital, an airport, a shopping centre, a call centre and a museum. The remainder is used to harvest energy.Ĭradle to Cradle includes part of the interior of another art work – SlaveCity – which Joep van Lieshout has been designing since 2005 and which is intended to house 200,000 residents. In a model of efficiency, the organs are used for transplants, while the flesh, fluids, fat and bones are processed into meat. Bones, skulls, muscle groups and organs lie on robust, brightly lit tables. Cradle to Cradle consists of an anatomical theatre, a semi-industrial slaughterhouse and a high-tech operating room. This principle is taken to the extreme in AVL’s installation. This means that old materials are used to form new products without loss of quality or waste products. Cradle to Cradle is based on the concept that waste is food. This artwork takes its name from the popular Cradle to Cradle manifesto by the American architect William McDonough and the German chemist Michael Braungart. Joep van Lieshout’s fascination with systems and organs is apparent in his installation Cradle to Cradle (2009).

Cradle to cradle braungart