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
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 Acacia Mateo Decorated House Calle Ortgea Melgares 15 Lorca, region Murcia, Spain can be seen from the street |
Outsider Environments Europe
an inventory and documentary of art environments in Europe created by non-professionals
November 22, 2024
Acacia Mateo, Casa decorada / Decorated house
November 13, 2024
Carmela Ricco and Barbara Mula, Parco Lallo
images by Parca Lallo, as published on Google Streetview |
can be seen from the road
November 01, 2024
Nadiya Kutsa, Прикрашені будинки / Decorated houses
images are screenprints from the video in the documentation |
Recently, at the end of October 2024, a short film appeared on the Facebook page of the regional TV channel Ternopil 1 in which an inhabitant told how she had provided the outside of her house and the neighbors' house with decorations.
Nadiya Kutsa, the inhabitant, was 64 years old when she was visited and interviewed by the film crew.Documentation
* Video by Ukrainian TV Ternopil 1, on Facebook, October 23, 2024
October 25, 2024
Adam Szubski, Galeria Rzezby Adam Szubski / Sculpture Gallery Adam Szubski
all images published here in agreement with Justyna Orlovska, from her website Off the beaten track |
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The sculpture garden is a creation of Adam Szubski (1931-2008), who was born in Warsaw.
His father, Stefan Szubski, had a job in metalworking and won many prizes in the years before the Second World War.
Adam Szubski became a stonemason, but he also worked with metal, especially with sheet zinc, .a material he also used at that time to create works of art.
Adam Szubski died on November 15, 2008.
His family takes care of the maintenance of the sculptures and occasionally organizes exhibitions and workshops in sculpture
The gallery is open to visitors from May to October.
October 18, 2024
Florence Marie, La Forge / The Forge
all images courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, from her website |
Life and works
This art environment is an impressive creation by Florence Marie, who was born on April 17, 1946 in Le Havre, a commune also located at the mouth of the Seine, but then on the north side, diagonally opposite Honfleur.
At a young age Florence loved reading literature and after her school years in Le Havre, she went to Paris to study philosophy and theatre.
She was active in writing and painting and had a house with a small studio on the Place Saint-Georges in Montmartre.
In 1994, in her late 40s, she moved to Honfleur, where she had found new accommodation in the former forge building which, in addition to a large outdoor space, included a 400 m2 workshop and a house with several floors.
The decorations she made are certainly not small-scale, on the contrary, the creations that adorn the walls are often man-sized.
In the 2000 m² space outside there are even very large creations, mostly made of recycled material, such as the depiction of an angel of the apocalypse, provided with silver wings, announcing to a black Virgin the birth of a star child.
And there is also a life-size giraffe hanging from the roof on a chimney, partly replacing it.
The interior of the house is also filled with a lot of fascinating creative work. The whole is a work of art in itself.
There are all kinds of sculptures, mosaic creations, stained glass cabinets, colorful furniture, painted carpets......
In one of the relatively spacious rooms inside, various events are organized nowadays, where music is alternated with dance, storytelling and the like. These are announced on Florence Marie's Facebook page.
An association Les Amis de la Forge has also been founded, which develops all kinds of activities to support and further develop Florence Marie's project.
October 11, 2024
Mauno Suonpää; Pahkaparatiisi / Gnarl paradise
images are screenprints from the video in the documentation |
Pahkaparatiisi is in English Gnarl Paradise and Gnarl stands for: a rough, knotty protuberance, especially on a tree. Just one more step and we begin to understand what it's all about: protuberance, that's an English word that means something like a knob, an outgrowth or a washout .....
The images in this article show the characteristics of the items collected in the art environment reviewed here, namely all kinds of outgrowths of trees in particular, which have a specific shape that is so appealing that, when brought together in an extensive collection, they radiate an artistic quality.
Life and works
The one who created this art environment is Mauno Suonpää, who was born in 1932 in Huittinen, a community of around 9500 inhabitants in the region Satakunta in the south-west of Finland.
He was raised in a house outside the built-up area of Huittinen, situated on a wooded area where the Gnarl Paradise would later be located and of which it is now a part.
He started working in the forest at the age of 15, first with the help of horses, later with a tractor bought in 1956.
Mauno Suonpää
Pahkaparatiisi
Suonpääntie 43
32700 Huittinen, dept West-Finland, region Satakunta, Finland
in July open every day from 12-18, in other months visits on appointment