François Alix, Magic Hortus

this image and the next four (2024)
courtesy of the editors of the website tipeek photos 

In Foreil, a small hamlet that is part of the commune of Verrue in the department Vienne, France, there is a forest called Scévolles.

In this rural and wooded area François Alix in 2018 started to create his art environment Magic Hortus.

Life and works

François Alix was born in 1964 in Chinon, a commune about 40 kilometers north of Verrue.

There is virtually no information available on the internet about his early years and education.

His life story begins with the report that he had gone to live in Switzerland, where he sold antiquarian books. He returned to France in 2018, when he was 54. Earlier, in 2010, he had bought the four-hectare site in Foreil.

Francois Alix moved into a house situated on the area he had bought in 2010. Pictures from that time show that this terrain provided space to store caravans and was covered with a variety of small stone structures. 

He came up with the idea of ​​beautifying this area by adding home-made decorations, and because around that time a pile of scrap metal had been dumped in the forest near the area, his first thought went to welding himself all sorts of metal flowers. And so he went to work with a hacksaw and a welding machine, producing small pieces of metal that were put together in all kinds of compositions.

For many years in this way he was active in creating a range of metal flowers, painted in all sorts of colours. With these flowers he could bring colour not only to his own life, but also to the lives of people who come to see his art environment.

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The sea of ​​flowers on the site, currently partly entwined with rusty foliage, also explains why it bears the name Magic Hortus.

The smaller metal creations also include a group of 365 sculptures of women who dance, spread out across the terrain.

There are also small metal creations in specific shapes that decorate fences situated in various places in the art environment.

And then, they are also used to decorate stand alone metal elements, such as the large round wheel, shown below and a metal bridge that covers kind of a a water feature surrounded by upright yellow colored side walls

Near this bridge rises a tall rusty metal tower, its top marked by a large amount of metal strings hanging down, all together a paraphrase on a tree. Such trees also adorn the site elsewhere.

François Alix’s favorite spot is the "high line" pictured below. It is a large, walkable metal structure, kind of a bridge, made from arches that came from a train station. From this bridge one has a beautiful view of the art environment.

Within the ensemble of iron and stone items that adorn the garden, the carefully placed gravestones occupy a special place, which could give the idea that this is an open-air mausoleum. 

However, the site is more a vast labyrinth or maze of interrelated metal and stone creations.

In March 2024 something completely unexpected happened. A representative of DREAL (Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing) came along, accompanied by a few police officers, to report that the site was considered an unlicensed iron waste heap that had to be cleared within a few months.

François Alix does not accept this and puts up a defense.

 

Documentation

* Article (May 2024) on the website of newspaper France Bleu Poitou

* Article (May 2024) on website Tipeek Photos

* Article (October 2021) in newspaper La Nouvelle République

Video

* Video (YouTube, 2024, 5'46'') 

Francois Alix

Magic Hortus,

along the D347

Hamlet of Foreil, municipality of Verrue, dept Vienne, region Normandy. France

can be visited

Google Streetview

Herbert Moßmann, Herbert's Traumpfad / Herbert's Dream Path

all photos (2024) courtesy of Hannes Bürgelin

The image above shows the decorated house of Herbert Mossmann as it looked in 2024

It is located in Seelbach, a commune of around 5,000 people in the area well-known as Black Forest (Schwartzwald) in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Life and works

Herbert Moßmann (1950-2024) became known for the sculptures he placed along a local walking trail.

He was born on March 5, 1950, and had a job for which no information is available on the internet, except that he retired in 2013, when he was in his early sixties. 

With his wife Gerlinde he lived in a house outside the built-up area of ​​Seelbach. located along a walking trail that started at a campsite near Moßmann's  house. 

As a pensioner he was at home a lot and so it could happen that during the day he met people who were walking on the hiking trail. He noticed that they often complained about the small number of benches that were available along the path to rest or enjoy the surrounding landscape.

Herbert Moßmann decided to do something about this and he hand-crafted a bench that was placed along the walking trail. 

One thing led to another and in the summer of 2017 he came up with the idea of ​​making wooden sculptures to install as decoration along the walking trail.

He got to work and after a few months his initiative had become so well-known that the regional newspaper Schwarwälder Bote on November 16, 2017 had an article about Moßmann's project, entitled 

A 'dream path' full of loving characters.

Indeed, as the surrounding images of some of Moßmann's sculptures show, he made a number of sculptures depicting animals that feel at home in a wooded environment, such as owls.

Other creations he made by working pieces of tree trunk in such a way that a friendly human character or animal appeared

A striking use of an old tree trunk can be seen in the second photo from the top, where Moßmann poses by an upside-down tree, with the root system at the top now functioning as kind of an umbrella.

Working on the sculptures over a number of years, Mossmann experienced a certain development in the processing of the wooden material from the nearby forests.

Unfortunately, he did not get to enjoy the decoration of the walking path itself for long:  Herbert Mossmann passed away at the age of 74 on August 14, 2024.

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Other sculpture trails in Germany:

* An 8.5 kilometer walking path with some eighty sculptures made by non-professionals, situated between Neuler and Niederalfingen, communities located 70 km south of Frankfurt.

* An arrangement of dwarfs created by Jürgen Farklas, located in a wood near Burbach, some 90 km west of Cologne.

Documentation

* Article (November 2017) in regional newspaper Schwarzwälder Bote

* Article  (July 2023) on website Hay Anni, with a series of photos

* Article (January 2024) on website Senioren Treff

Video

* A short video (November 2023, 0"27', YouTube) by Traveltino 

Herbert Moßmann

Herberts Traumpfad

Unterdorfstraße 24

77960 Seelbach, district Ortenau, federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany

sculptures can be seen from the road

Google Streetview with a variety of photos

Luigi Mazzilli, Villa Fantasy

all images are screenprints from the video
in the documentation

The Italian municipality of Corato. with about 48,000 inhabitants, is located in the south-eastern part of the country, and, like the nearby city of Bari, it has the Mediterranean Sea within easy reach.

The eastern part of Corato borders the National Park Alta Murgia.

Outside the built-up area of ​​Corato there is an art environment. The exact location is not made public to prevent vandalism as much as possible.

The two photos above show what a visitor sees when approaching the site: a decorated  

entrance gate, a decorated facade of a house and next to that facade a tower-like structure. 

All together an abundant display of all kinds of creativity.

Life and works

Luigi Mazzilli, the one who created this art environment, was born in 1940. He became a mason by profession, married and the couple had a daughter.

From a young age he had the idea to do something different than usual. Something flashy. So, in addition to his daily work, he collected for many years all kinds of items that could be used to embellish a building.

And then, in the 1990s he started an extensive decoration project. He was in his fifties and continued this project intensively for about thirty years until in the 2020s the creation had the impressive appearance as shown in the images in this post.. 

Currently Mazzilli is in his early 80s.

The house

The decorated house is the most eye-catching part of the art environment.

The available publications about the creation do not mention the extent to which Mazzilli himself updated the design of this house. One might assume that its original shape corresponded to a rectangular box. However, the top of that box now features a number of extensive semi-circular emblems, all topped with a small tower. 

Semicircular columns have been added to each of the four corners of the building.

If the design of the house and its upper part has taken place in the manner supposed, then it is a particularly successful architectural transformation.

All walls of the house, the four columns and all roof elements are elaborately decorated.

The shells that are part of the decoration were collected by Mazzilli himself on neighboring beaches. He has also been intensively busy processing mirrors and other glassware into small decorations and searching for all kinds of colorful stones.

Transforming and decorating the original house has meant that the art environment now has a defining element with a distinct allure.

Other elements

Another important element of this art environment is the entrance. 

From the country road along which the site is situated to the gate and then further into the art environment. the terrain is completely covered with a mosaic of stone items.

Before a visitor reaches the gate. there are stone benches on both sides and an inscription in the mosaic welcoming visitors. The entrance itself is formed by an iron fence, surrounded by decorated columns on which an equally decorated overarching pediment rests, bearing the initials LM.

Another striking stand-alone element in this art environment is the tower-like structure, as can be seen in the second image from the top. This creation, which stands along the road to the right of the entrance, is equipped with five more or less round basins and can function as a fountain.

For the rest the outdoor area of the house features all kinds of smaller, stand-alone creations, such as some fifty stone sculptures of lions, dinosaurs and a dragon that breathes real fire.

In November 2023, when Mazzilli was 83 years old, he was interviewed by Thomas Fox, who strives to uncover places of cultural and educational value. The meeting is captured on the video in the documentation.

In that interview, Mazzilli made a statement worth reproducing here: Humanity is destined to create works, so try to see if this possibility exists within yourself. And if you have it, take it outside. Anyone who has the idea in their heart to do something different should just start doing it.

A heart-warming point of view indeed.

Documentation

* Article (November 2023) in newspaper Corato Live, with a variety of images

* Article (October 2019) in newspaper Bari Edita, also with a variety of images

* Article on website Costruttori di Babele, with photos

Video

* Video (November 2923, YouTube, 12'20") by Thomas Fox, entitled Villa Fantasy, un tesoro nascosto a Corato (Villa Fantasy, a hidden treasure in Corato)

Luigi Mazzilli

Villa Fantasy

address is not made available

Corato, dept Bari, region Apulia, Italy 

José Santana, Jardim dos Monumentos / Garden of Monuments

pictures (2024) are screen-prints from Google Streetview

Bragança is a municipality with about 34,750 inhabitants (2001) in the north of Portugal, near the border with Spain.

The city is bisected by the Fervença river and near a bridge in the city, along a bank of the river, there is an outdoor area belonging to a house, that in recent years has been transformed into an art environment.

Life and works

This art environment was created by José Santana, who was born in 1940.

In the 1960s when he was in his early 20s, Santana migrated to France where he would work for about 37 years, eventually as a team leader, in a company that built bridges, including very large ones such as a five-kilometer long railway bridge.

In France he met his wife, started a family with children and one of his first experiences with creativity was making nativity scenes for and with his daughters.

Once retired, he returned to Portugal, settled in Bragança and in 2005, at the age of 65, he was inspired to do something creative. 

Influenced by his time in France, that "something" became a replica of the Eiffel Tower, The replica was installed in the outdoor area of ​​his house, near the bridge over the Fervença river.

That was the beginning of the creation of an art environment, which in February 2014, when he was interviewed by the regional newspaper Nordeste, had already reached a considerable size.

Santana is a quiet, meticulous worker, who has a photographic memory, which comes in handy when making replicas of large buildings, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Praça da Sé in São Paulo, the Santo Condestável in Lisbon, the Taj Mahal in India, the Sanctuary of Fátima and the Outeiro Sanctuary in Bragança,

But the site also includes small-scale creations of, for example, biblical characters such as Joseph and Mary, or a scene of three friends around a table, where the beard of one of them is provided with real hair from Santana's own hairdo.

Documentation 

* Article (2014) in newspaper Nordeste

* Entry )2024) on the weblog of Alexandre Pomar, with a series of photos

José Santana

Garden of Monuments

City of Bragança, region Bragança, Portugal

can be seen from the street

Google  Streetview

Anonymous, Будинок з прикрасами / Decorated house

this image and the next two (2023) as on journal 20minut

The decorated house pictured above is located in the Kutkivtsi suburb of Ternopil, a city of 225,000 inhabitants (2021) in western Ukraine. 

These decorations are applied to two of the four exterior walls of the house, one along the street, the other on the left side wall seen from the street. 

The name of the occupant of the house, most likely the one who added the decorations, is unknown. 

As far as could be determined, there are two Ukrainian sources on the Internet that pay attention to this art environment,

Julia Inozemtseva, the journalist who wrote about the house, did not find the resident at home and neighbors were also unavailable. She had to limit herself to describing what could be seen on the outside of the house, with the picture of keyhole in the white circle as a particularly striking item.

The other source that does not name the creator is the website of Volt Agapeyev, an artist born in Ternopil, currently working in Kiev. He refers to the mural as an Inner Gingerbread House, where the mural offers extra protection from what is happening inside in the private sphere

Some factual information is available via Google Streetview. 

The image below shows the house as it looked in May 2015. It seems to have been made when the construction of the house had just been completed. 

So the application of the colorful decoration on the front and left side wall, including the remarkable keyhole, must have started after this date.

Documentation

* Article  (March 2023) in Ternopil newspaper 20minut

* Article (undated) on the website of Volt Agapeyev

Anonymous

Decorated house

Hlyboka Dolyna Street, 3

District Kutkivtsi, City of Ternopil, region Ternopil, Ukraine

can be seen from the street

Google Streetview

Tuula Paavola, Odotan bussia lähellä lyhytikäistä taideympäristöä / Waiting for the bus near a short-lived art environment

all images in this post are from Google Streetview
this one by by Timur Matsiev

The man with a suitcase, waiting patiently for the bus by the side of the road, as in the image above, is one of the remaining sculptures of an art environment with sculptures in Finland

People living in the area call this man Vasarainen Vaari, which is Finnish for Grandfather Vassarainen. 

This name also refers to the location of the bus stop, which is along a major road not far from the hamlet of Vasarainen, that is part of the municipality of Rauma in the Satakunta region in South-West Finland.

 

part of a photo by filemo films 

Above magnification shows the friendly smile given to the man with the suitcase by Tuula Paavola, the non-professional artist who created the sculpture. 

She was born in 1971 and works in Vasarainen as a nurse. 

In her younger years she was already active in making creations and she followed a course in making garden sculptures at Rauma Civic College.

When she started creating an art environment along the main road is not exactly known. 

On Google Streetview from 2011 there is no art environment to see yet. On the shots on Streetview made eight years later, in 2019, the man waiting for the bus can be seen, as well as a small wooden structure with an open front and inside an animal resembling a horse.

this image (July 2020) by Timo Kostamo 

In 2020, the site was expanded with a number of animals, such as a lying horse, a standing horse and a large, difficult to recognize animal that looks a bit like an elephant.

August 2019

A short-lived art environment with limited publicity

In the field of Finnish ITE-art Tuula Paavola has not yet got much publicity, On the internet there is  a short article in ITE-Satakunnassa. p.64 

Another concise text about her sculptures, appeared  on the Finnish website Walttia. 

This text looks back on the summer crowds that in 2020 would like to visit the art environment, when it was in full existence. There was only room for a few cars to park along the road and some residents of Vassarainen made it quite clear that the safety of passing motorists had been jeopardized.

It is not incomprehensible that Tuula Paavola took this very much to heart and removed most of the sculptures, leaving lonely the sculpture of the man waiting for the bus.

Tuula Paavola

Waiting for the bus near a short-lived art environment

along mainroad 2052 near Vasarainen

Finland

can be seen from the road

Google Streetview (2021)

Acacia Mateo, Casa decorada / Decorated house

this image and the next three as on Streetview

The decorated house, as pictured above, is located on a street in Lorca, a municipality with over 91,000 inhabitants (2016) in the south-east of Spain.

Life and works

This decoration was created by Acacia Mateo Pérez-Castejón (25 September 1905 - 1 May 2003), simply referred to as Acacia Mateo. He was born in Motril, a municipality about 250 km south-east of Lorca. 

Why his parents moved from Motril to Lorca is unknown, just as not everything is known about Mateo's professional life.

Mateo did his military service in Barcelona.

Here he came into contact with the art that Gaudi created. He was particularly struck when he saw that all kinds of buildings were decorated with ceramics. This must have given him the idea to do the same with the house in Lorca that he moved into after his time in Barcelona.

The house is situated in a street with adjoining buildings, both apartment flats and simple family homes. Mateo's house belongs to the latter category, with a downstairs space, an upstairs space and a roof terrace.

The images above show that the right balcony seen from the street is missing the railing, which was caused by a passing truck hitting it.

Mateo began decorating the façade in the early 1930s and worked on it for about twenty years. 

The style he worked in is trencadís, an approach that was also widely used by Gaudi and is characterized by the use of small pieces of ceramic from stone objects or marble tiles, which are used to create various forms of mosaic.

The interior is also richly decorated. Tables, beds and bedside tables are equipped with trencadis, there is a covered fountain and also a kind of cave. 

There are no images of it, because after Mateo's death in 2003 the house was no longer inhabited and not accessible anymore

On May 11, 2011, the city of Lorca was hit by two earthquakes. The decorated front of the house remained unscathed, but it is possible that because of the earthquake two small buildings on the roof collapsed, which is not visible from the street. 

In 2021 the decorated house was classified as a protected monument by the municipality.

A self-decorated grave monument

this image and the next one (2015) courtesy of  Jo Farb Fernandez

In the local cemetery Parroquial San Cristóbal, in 1963 Mateo created a funerary monument to commemorate the death of his father that year. It was later completed with decorations after the deaths of his mother and brother, and Mateo himself will also be buried there.

The monument is decorated in the same style with colorful trencadís and is surrounded by sculpted benches, wavy fences and flower pots.

Documentation

* Article (2014) by Jo Farb Hernandez on the website SPACES

* Article (2018) by Guillermo Cegarra Beltrí on his weblog Modernismo y Art Deco

Acacia Mateo

Decorated House

Calle Ortgea Melgares 15

Lorca, region Murcia, Spain

can be seen from the street

Google Streetview