Erik van Lieshout’s fourth solo exhibition at Galerie Krinziger is showing the film G.O.A.T., which he developed in a period of three months at the Biennale grounds of the 3rd Kochi Muziris Biennale, India.

The filming started with the intention to produce a film with and about the audience. As one way to get in contact with the visitors Erik van Lieshout used the performative appropriation of elements of local cultures, such as rituals, to release the visitors from the burden of their sins.

Already the intention to share the exhibition space with two goats got Erik van Lieshout into trouble with the Biennale’s authorities and lead to a conflict that later on escalated in the film because of the unwanted collages he made. The artist is reacting with self-censorship by overpainting crucial parts with a felt tip marker. Despite this action those responsible were still upset about his behavior, therefore they let remove or cover the collages entirely and threatened Erik van Lieshout with immediate deportation. The film goes beyond the otherwise often satirical approach in his artistic practice, as Erik Van Lieshout finds himself in a situation that seems no longer controllable to him.

G.O.A.T. is not only about van Lieshout's stylization as a scapegoat but also about right and wrong, guilt and responsibility, victims and perpetrators and questions the values and valuations of various religious-moral ideas and norms - including in the art system.

Erik van Lieshout was born 1968 in Deurne, NL, lives and works in Rotterdam. Selection of his most resent exhibitions: Erik van Lieshout Sündenbock Kunstverein Hannover, (DL), solo, 2017, 3. Kochi Muziris Biennale (IND), group, 2017, Drawing Biennial 2017, Unfinished conversations: New work from the collection. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (USA), group, 2017, Erik van Lieshout: The Show Must Ego On, Wiels, Brussels (BE), solo, 2016, Political Populism, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (AT) group, 2015, Drawing Now, Albertina, Vienna, (AT), group, 2015, Between the pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will, Thessaloniki Biennal (GR), group, 2015, A Modest Proposal for Radical Bourgeoisie, De Hallen, Haarlem (NL), group , 2015, Meisterzeichnungen/Master Drawings, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich (CH), group, 2015, Feiert das Leben!, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien und Caritas&Du, Vienna (AT), group, 2015, Drawing I The Bottom Line, S.M.A.K. - Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (BE), group, 2015, Manifesta 10, HermitageGeneral Staff Building, St. Petersburg (RUS), group, 2014, delegierte Performance for WWTBD, Marien Jongewaard at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, (AT), solo, 2013, The Encyclopedic Palace, La Biennale di Venezia, Arsenale,Venice (IT), curator Massimiliano Gioni, group, 2013, Manifesta 9 - Koolmijn van Waterschei-Genk, Genk (BE), group, 2012, Exhibitions at Galerie Krinzinger: ICON - Ideal.Idee.Inspiration, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, group, 2017, Screening The Basement, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Parterre, group, 2015, Echter Luxus, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, solo, 2010, Artists of the gallery, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, group, 2009, Tessa, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, solo, 2004, Politically Correct? Dutch!, Galerie Krinzinger, Salzburg and Vienna, group, 2002.