Manfred Gnädinger, Museo del Aleman/Museum of the German

picture from the website of the journal farodevigo

Not much is known about the early years of mr Manfred Gnädinger. He was born in 1936 in the community of Boehringen in Germany (some sources say it was Dresden, 1940). He had other brothers and sisters and his mother died when he was still young.

It is said that as as youngster he was interested in spiritual matters. He may have had artistic ambitions, but did not go to an art school.

I do not know if there was a specific reason why in the early sixties Manfred decided to leave Germany and settle in Camelle, in the Coruña area, facing the Atlantic. Probably it had to do with a desire to be away from the materialistic, industrialized world and live a more natural life, a desire that was not uncommon among young people those days.

The villagers may have thought he was a pilgrim, on his way to Santiago, and gave him hospitality like Galicians are used to do. Maybe they were suprised that Manfred did not intend to go to Santiago, but preferred to setlle in their community.

It is said he got a room in the house of a spanish lady who was german from origin and still could speak the language. There are pictures showing mr Gnädinger as the young emigré, neatly dressed and clean shaven. He went to mass on sundays. And he fell in love with a spanish young lady, but she went for another man.

It is not quite clear why, but mr Gnädinger’s life took a suprising new direction. He decided to say goodbye to the comfortable aspects of western life and to start a new, more natural, ecological and vegetarian life. He constructed himself a small cabin of some 2x3 meters on the beach of Camelle, close to the jetty that protects its harbour (I inderstand he bought the plot from the local authorities for a symbolic amount).

He went to live there his own life in that cabin without running water and electricity, feeding himself with food he procured from the sea and with vegetables he cultivated in his own garden, walking barefoot and being dressed in just a loincloth, exercising a lot by swimming far into the ocean and jogging daily.

A very, very special hippy of the sixties.

picture Wikimedia

And an artist too.... In and around this cabin he created his own artistic environment. He made sculptures from stones and rocks that were around and from all kind of washed up material that could be found on the beach. Cabin and creations became a museum. It could be visited by tourists, who had to pay a small fee to look around and had to make some drawing in one of mr Gnadinger’s notebooks.

He became known as the aleman of Camelle (the german of Camelle) and generally was spoken of as Man. Although he was rather eccentric, in general the villagers seem to have accepted his way of life and looked at him as one who belonged to the community.

This situation continued through the seventies, eighties and nineties of the former century.

Things changed dramatically in 2002. The oil tanker Prestige, sailing along the Galician coast run into problems, broke into two and lost tons of oils. The sea and the beaches were heavily polluted and Man’s plot, creations and cabin were ruined, covered with a thick layer of black raw oil.

Emotionally shocked, Man locked himself up in his cabin, locking the door with a sign that everybody should keep out. After a number of days, people became worried, they went into the cabin and found him dead.

His death aroused much publicity in the spanish newspapers. He was described as the first human victim of oil pollution. An overview can be found on this website (most texts in spanish).

After Man passed away the government has not been very active in taking measures to have the site preserved for the future, although it is reported that mr Gnädinger had legated money to the state to keep the site intact.

The cabin and the creation nowadays are still there. A fence has been erected with a signpost asking people to respect the site. A foundation has been formed by friends of the museum, who are active in promoting that measures are taken to preserve the site for the future.

In july 2009 the Galician parliament has decided to start a project to study all aspects of such a preservation. (Here is an interview in Spanish with mr Creus, who will do the research).

Inspired by Manfreds life and work some movies have been made. Here is one, made by Juan Carlos Abraldes in 2006 (an animated short movie, 8 min) that is rather special in its composition and message.

Man (Manfred Gnadinger)
Museo del Aleman
Camelle, Galicia, ES
can be seen from the street, but is closed for visits pending renovation

Peter Jensen, Peterspladsen/Peter's Square

picture from the Hjerring municipality website

This post is about a danish sculpture garden, featuring Denmark's Peter, as he lovingly is called by his fellow countrymen.

Mr Peter Jensen (1898-1984) has lived all his life in the small community of Bjergby, in the northern part of the country. He was born there in a family with thirteen children.

Mr Jensen became a blacksmith by profession. In 1934 he constructed the house where he went to live in for the rest of his life. There is a story saying that he wanted some decorations on the walls and decided to paint them himself (I never came along a picture of them, so I have no idea how they would have looked like).

Mr Jensen however also began making other creations, that still can be admired. Using all kind of scrap material and reinforced cement, he created sculptures of animals, a giraffe (some 6 meters high), a huge elephant, birds, and so on. He used pictures from newspapers and glossies to see how he had to modell them. All together he made some 39 sculptures. These are exposed on a plot of land near his place of living.

picture from the website of Vedsyssel Museum of Art (Hjerring)

After mr Jensen died (as far as I know in 1984, but there are sources saying it was in 1985), there were some public actions to have the sculptures preserved for the future. For example the art historian and writer Rudolf Broby-Johansen, who was a fan of the site, made a movie and raised nationwide publicity. As a result the sculpture garden nowadys is rather well cared for.

The municipality of Hjerring, whereof Bjergby is a part, decided to allocate a substantial amount of money to have the sculptures renovated, a project that in 2002 was executed by the professional sculptor Marit Benthe Norheim. And there is a nation wide organisation, everyone can become a member of, named Peterspladsen Venner (Friends of Peterspladsen), that supports the site by raising money for its maintenance.

The site nowadays has facilities for having a picknick and attracts a lot of people in the holiday season.

Here is a link to a website with a number of pictures of the sculptures.

Peter Jensen
Peterspladsen
Bjergby, DK
open for the public

Camille Vidal, Jardin de l'Eden/Garden of Eden

This post is about a site that has disappeared in situ: the garden of Eden of mr Camille Vidal, that in the 50s and the 60s of the former century came into being in the community of Agde in the south of France, close to the mediterrenean coast.

I have always been intrigued by the creations of mr Camille Vidal (1895-?), but it has proved to be rather difficult to trace information in open internet sources about his life and works, and good pictures are hardly available

(His work of course has been described and pictured in some classic french publications on outsider environments, but most people outside France won't be able to acquire these).

The pictures in this post show what kind of sculptures were made by mr Vidal.

He was a mason during his professional life and when he retired in the early 50s of the former century he was looking for something to do.

He began making sculptures, like other outsiders have been doing, impersonating people that were part of his perception of life and the world around: Adam and Eve, french personalities like Clemenceau and Fernandel, and world leaders like Churchill.

All together he made some 150 sculptures, working with reinforced cement.

They were exposed in the garden around his house in Agde, that has been named Garden of Eden, but also Arche de Noë, Noah's Ark.

After mr Vidal had died, at a for me unknown date in the 60s or 70s of the former century, his sculpture garden was left unattended for.

A number of sculptures were saved and transported to the french Fabuloserie museum in Dicey, where nowadays they still can be seen. The Fabuloserie website however has no documentation on mr Vidal's life and works.

The site in Agde has completely disappeared, and no one there seems to be aware it once was there.

Camille Vidal
Jardin de l'Eden
Agde, FR
site has disappeared,
sculptures can be seen in the Fabuloserie museum, Dicey FR

Ensio Tuppurainen, Exposition

picture from the website elisanet.fi

Mr Ensio Tuppurainen was born in 1924 in the community of Hirvensalmi in Finland.

He spent his active life in the army. Nowadays being retired and a veteran from war, he has his accommodation in Vekaranjärvi, a large military base, near the community of Valkealan, in the south of Finland.

picture courtesy minna haveri

Mr Tuppurainen, who nowadays is in his 80s, is a self-taught artist, who has been making paintings of landscapes, people and other scenes and who has been active in sculpturing (elks, horses, other animals).

He is best known, probably, by the statements he writes down on posters in a expressive and colorful way. They are exposed on a plot in the woods near the cabin where he had his (now closed) studio and gallery. In these texts mr Tuppurainen comments on what he sees as social and political abuses, varying from EU-politics, the banking system and old age pensions, to environmental policy and the treatment of refugees.

On the nykykansantaide site of Minna Haveri, there is a nice series of pictures of the expo (click on galleriaan).

Mr Tuppurainen's work was represented in the 2005 exposition In Another World in the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki.

Ensio Tuppurainen
Exposition
Vekeranjärvi
Valkealan FI

François Botherel, Maison des coquillages (Plouescat)/Shell house (Plouescat)

pictures published with friendly permission of the
webmaster of the Plouescat heritage website

Plouescat is a community on the north coast of Finistère, Brittany, France. This is where mr François Bothorel has made something special of his house. He has decorated its

interior with shells, that he patiently collects on the local beaches. Walls are decorated, but also many items that keep memories of local heritage alife.

For example, the shelldecorated utensils on the picture above, were used in households to make butter, on the right kind of a centrifuge to separate milk and cream, and on the left a device to transform the cream into the famous breton butter (salted as preferred with salt from te salt cellar in between).

another exposition of utensils, a weighing machine, a wheel from a charriot and a ?

Mr Botherel also shelldecorated a number of machines that in former days were used on the farm, like the one in the next picture that could cut plants and other supplies to feed horses.

Mr Botherel by appointment will welcome visitors who would like to take a look at his creations. If you happen to be around in Plouescat, just ask the tourist office for further directions.

François Botherel
Pont as Manac'h
29430 Plouescat, Brittany, FR
can be visited on appointment

Monsieur G., Le sanctuaire des lasers/The sanctuary of lasers

pictures from PULPwiki, the Jarvis Cocker website

When the british singer Jarvis Cocker in 1998 was filming in France part of his Channel 4 TV movie Journey into the Outside (broadcasted 1999), he went along the sites of Abbé Fouré, Robert Vasseur, Bodan Litnianski, Raymond Isidore (=Picassiette), Chomo, Ferdinand Cheval (=le Facteur), all well known today.

Mr Cocker also paid attention to Monsieur G., who nowadays is less well known and about whom the internet hardly has any observation.

Monsieur G (1898-1986) is said to have travelled a lot around the world. At some moment he settled himself in the small community of Nesles-la-Gilberde, in the Seine et Marne department of France, south-east of Paris.

There he built his own house, constructing terraces, towers, an interior swimming pool. He decorated the walls and the pallisades of the property with all kind of paintings of subjects he considered important in life, and he also made a room where images were projected and voices of the past could be heard, so as to interfere with sounds and images of the present.

What made him special in the opinion of the locals, was his affinity with lasers. He is quoted to have said: "The laser is unique in the world. Only my house distributes it. Why is this here the sanctuary? There is something that attracts them.'' In mr G's opinion, the Russians were responsible for all incoming lasers, those directed upon his house.

I could not trace any facts about the life of monsieur G before he settled in Nesles. Neither is there agreement on his real name, he is referred to as Gaston Louis, Gaston Gaye and Gaston Gastineau.

I could not find any reference to what happened with the house and the decorations after 1986, the year monsieur G. died.

The french filmmaker and author mr Clovis Prevost in 1977 has made a 28 min movie, entitled Monsieur G dans le sanctuaire des lasers (trailer on INA France, can also be ordered on DVD).

And, by the way, in London, Jarvis Cocker's Journey into the outside nowadays (november 2009) can be seen. It is on screen in the Museum of Everything (on outsider art), that was opened in october 2009.

Monsieur G
le Sanctuaire des lasers
77540 Nesles-la-Gilberde, dep Seine et Marne, FR
actual status unknown

Frank Bruce, Sculpture garden (Feshiebridge)

one world
pictures (july 2008) published with friendly permission of leanne&eddie;
more pics on their photostream on Flickr

On the pictures you can see creations in wood of a scottish self-taught artist, who became a beloved sculptor: mr Frank Bruce (1931-2009).

He was born in a the community of St Combs in Scotland, in a family of fishermen. As a youngster attending school was problematic. He was dyslectic, what was not recognised these days. Thinking in images and forms, rather than in words, he preferred the outside world of nature, like the forms of trees in the forest, above the world of books and scholarly knowdledge.

So after leaving school at his 13th, he did not go for more formal education, but he entered all kind of jobs. like working in a saw mill, or unloading coal boats, jobs that are rather physically burdening.

In the 60ths of the former century with his wife he went to live in the community of Aviemore, where the couple began a bread&breakfast.

Due to an accident, mr Bruce blessed his back, and as kind of a manual therapy he did some sculpturing of wood. That was the beginning of a new creative adventure.

third world (fragment)

At first he made small wooden objects, but soon he began making sculptures in large formats, using dead trees as his basic material. He was inspired by themes associated with nature, scottish folklore and patriotic feelings.

two patriots

The rather large sculptures were exposed in the garden around the house in Aviemore.

When the garden became too small for the collection, around 1995 a new exposure site came into being, in concert with the authorities in the community of Banff, on the scottish east coast. That was the Colleonard Sculpture Garden and Gallery on Sandyhill Road in Banff, with some fourteen of mr Bruce's large sculptures. The exposition enjoyed the interest of thousands of visitors, and the garden never was vandalized.

This garden nowadays is closed, because with the help of the Scottish Forestry Commission another location for the sculptures was created. This one, opened november 2007, is located in Feshiebridge, in the Cairngorms National Park, in the interior of Scotland, not far from Aviemore. In these natural surroundings the sculptures are exposed along a trail.

There is an elaborate website with a lot information on mr Bruces life and works, and the sculpture trail.

Sadly, in september 2009 mr Bruce passed away.

A Frank Bruce Sculpture Trust has been formed to take care of the sculptures and there is a group of friends of the Feshiebridge sculpture garden, that is active in promoting the construction of a visitor centre (also meant to house the smaller sculptures).

Overviewing this story, what impresses me very much is the positive way the public and the authorities reacted to mr Bruce's creations. It surely may have to do with the expressiveness and the idiom of the sculptures, but maybe another factor could be that mr Bruce never would associate himself with the official world of art and always had in mind that his work should be available to the general public.

Frank Bruce
Sculpture Trail
Feshiebridge, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, UK