Never, Never, Never Give Up is an artists’ studio reflecting on the end of the world and how to prevent it. It is a collection of three buildings developed by Atelier Van Lieshout, in which positive action and positive thinking go hand in hand with the possibility of doomsday scenarios.

The three buildings include: a housing unit, an atelier and a prepper's den (survival bunker). Artists, curators and researchers temporarily residing on Ruigoord can stay and work here. Visitors to the oasis are welcome to descend and visit this survival bunker deep underground.

With Never, Never, Never Give Up, Van Lieshout appeals to the DIY spirit that AVL shares with the sanctuary that is Ruigoord. The addition of the prepper's den (a shelter where someone can survive war or the end of the world) plays on the current sense of threat felt by many. However, in Ruigoord, danger comes in many forms and is ever present. The green, peaceful oasis is coming under increasing threat by surrounding industry and encroaching housing development. Yet a creative resistance persists here, in the midst of seemingly overwhelming economic forces.

Like Ruigoord, many of AVL's works mirror the search for freedom and a utopian society, which can be both uplifting and dystopian.

Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) was founded in 1995 by Joep van Lieshout (1963), the creative brain and driving force behind the studio. He established his own sanctuary: AVL-ville. Like its own free state, it printed its own money and produced weapons for defence. There was a court, a hospital and a water treatment plant. Legislation and rules were kept to a minimum: living together in AVL-ville was mainly a matter of discussion, flexibility and experimentation. The free state was closed down by the police within a year, but Van Lieshout's love of firebrands and misfits and his desire for self-determination have remained.