January 17, 2009

Marc Allardon, La Maison d'Eden / The House of Eden


Dudu (from the former Eden website)

This post is about two neighboring art environments, the one by Marc Allardon, who really is an non=professional artist and who is the main character in this note, the other by Thierry Ehrmann, a businessman, who in a specific way is highly involved in the world of modern art.

Life and works of Marc Allardon

Marc Allardon (b. 1961), who runs a dry cleaning enterprise, in 1991 settled in the small village of Saint-Romain au Mont d'Or, near the city of Lyon, France. He had no artistic or creative aspirations, until in 1999 his neighbor Thierry Ehrmann on the other side of the street transformed his property into a Demeure du Chaos (an abode of chaos), a project inspired by what it's maker sees as the chaos in the world after 9-11.

Marc Allardon got inspired to mirror this development by transforming his house and garden into a demonstration of happiness, a Maison d'Eden, a house of paradise.

He painted the fence in bright colors, constructed a big snake, a tower of Babylon, a Dudu, a statue of Maria and on the roof of the house he put (not ten but thirteen) "commandments" such as "Tolerance", "Utopia" and "Hope".

the snake (also from the former website)

The mayor and the council of he village were not amused by these two initiatives and by judicial means they tried to get rid of the constructions and decorations.


picture (March 2009) courtesy of Owen Phillips from his weblog

However, as can be seen from above picture (March 2009), Allardon's site at that time still existed. However, in later years the internet hadn't any referral to the site, so it probably doesn't exist anymore

Legal proceedings around the Demeure du Chaos have too many aspects to be dealt with in this blog, but French newspaper Le Figaro (May 2013) had an article with a video (subtitled in English) about the case. Jo Farb Hernandez has contributed an article (around 2018) about this site to SPACES website.

Documentation/more pictures
* The House of Eden had a website, which meanwhile is down
* The weblog of Thierry Ehrmann.

first published January 2009, last revised june 2017

Marc Allardon
La Maison d'Eden
Rue de la République
Saint-Romain au Mont d'Or,  Métropole de Lyon, region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Demeure du Chaos on Google Maps, with a lot of photos


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