Max Manent, Le musée de l'insolite / The museum of the unusual

pictures courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, from her weblog

Loriol-sur-Drôme is a commune of around 6,600 inhabitants, situated in the Rhône valley in the south of France, between Valence and Montélimar. 

In a street in the centre of this commune, not far from the town hall, there is a house with a large number of rooms, of which more than ten are lavishly decorated, as shown in the images around.

Life and works

The house named Musée de l'insolite was inhabited and provided with a unique exhibition by Max Manent (1925-2023), who was born in Montélimar, a little over twenty km south of Loriol-sur-Drôme.

Max Manent grew up in a family where the father was a nougat manufacturer and apparently a quite open-minded person, because at the age of 15 the boy was allowed to travel through France, something that was quite unusual at the time.

However, for the young man it was a pleasure to explore the world, and once he was an adult he lived abroad for a while and then he stayed in Paris, where he met many people, among whom a number of artists.

He became a painter, and he focused on only one subject: women…. Whether he followed a training course of several years to be a painter is not known.

In 1979, when Manent was in his mid-50s, he moved to Loriol, where he took up residence in the spacious house along the Grand Rue.

Settling in this house, Manent must have felt that this was his final destination, because he began to decorate the rooms he did not use for living, with all that he had collected during the previous many years

He would indeed stay there for more than 40 years, time enough to transform the interior into a special indoor art environment.

The more than ten rooms are filled with a variety of objects such as the hundreds of crucifixes in the very first image, a wall completely covered with all kinds of colorful drawings and posters, as in the image above, but also a collection of ten to twelve thousand cigar bands with special images, rare musical instruments,  matchboxes, African art .....

Manent also used a wall to exhibit some of his his own paintings

In some rooms children were not allowed, because what was shown there was not suitable for them. Manet had his own ideas about the unusual and the unexpected

A very special exhibit is the wooden coffin in which he could be carried to his grave, a coffin decorated with silhouettes of women. 

Max Manent passed away on October 30, 2023 at the age of 97.

Whether the coffin he had prepared was actually used at his funeral is not clear, like there also is no information about what's going to happen with the collection.

Documentation

* Article (2015) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Article (2012) in newspaper le Dauphine 

Max Manent

Le musée de l'insolite

28 Grande Rue 26270

Loriol-sur-Drome, dept Drome, region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

currently the museum is closed

Seppo Laatunen, Ateljee Pikhahovi / Atelier Pihkahovi

pictures are screenprints from the video mentioned in the documentation

Located in the department of Southern Finland, the community of Jaala was independent, with a population of around 1,900, until it was merged with five other communities to form the municipality of Kouvola, one of the larger municipalities in Finland with over 80,000 inhabitants.

The man with the chain saw in the image above, Seppo Laatusen, has an atelier in the area around Jaala where he creates wooden sculptures, which not only decorate the studio, but are also displayed in a 0,5 hectare large wooded area near his home.

 

Life and works

Seppo Laatunen, who was born in 1938, showed an artistic disposition in his early years, which was evident from all kinds of wooden objects that he made himself at a young age. 

His mother, who had a hobby of making all kinds of drawings, recognized his talent for artistic work and she and her husband would have liked him to follow an art education, but their financial situation did not allow this.

A  nice event in Seppo's early years reveals something of his way of doing things

At the age of ten young Seppo and his brother went to help their father with logging in a nearby forest. Father sawed and split, the brothers stacked.

Mother had been given them flour, a few litres of buttermilk and some plates for lunch. When it was time to eat, Seppo cut a big hole in a tree stump to mix flour and buttermilk in, causing his father who was watching, to burst out laughing.

After primary school Laatunen went to work as a contractor in areas such as earthmoving and forestry. He was involved in draining marshes and maintaining forests.

Once an adult, he moved out on his own and bought a house in a wooded area, located halfway between the hamlets of Siikava and Hartola, close to his childhood home.

Although Laatunen made creations during his working life, he was only able to fully realise his potential when he retired around the year 2000.  In 2008 he built a spacious studio near his home, named Ateljee Pihkakov. where he could exhibit his sculptures. He also bought a half-acre piece of green area from a neighbour to display his larger creations.

The hundreds of wooden sculptures that Laatunen has created, cover a variety of themes. 

There is an interesting collection of creations that depict public figures, such as the former Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and the American politician Donald Trump, above. 

Public figures from Finland. such as 11th president Tarja Halonen, and Juha Mieto, Finland’s skiing legend, just as well known personalities from other countries have been depicted also.

In the green area one can see a number of high rising sculptures that depict all kinds of personalities. some around four meters high.

Other sculptures depict animals, such as animals that live in the forest, but also crocodiles.

Most of the sculptures are of people or animals, but a small shed on the property contains a self-made wooden replica of a red car with an open roof, large enough for someone to sit behind the wheel. A surprise for a visitor when the door of the small garage is opened.

Documentation

* Article (October 2021) in newspaper MT Metsä (includes a 2.24m video)

* Article in a weblog about interesting spots in the community of Jaala

* Article on the website of the Finnish Association for Rural Culture and Education MSL

* Article on a regional edition of the Association MSL 

Seppo Laatunen

Ateljee Pikhahovi

Ahvenistontie 28, 

Hamlet Jaala, municipality of Kouvola, region Kymenlaakso, dept Southern Finland, Finland

visitors welcome

Google Streetview (with photos)

Annie André, La maison des poupées / The dollhouse

 

this photo and the next one by the Bannalec town hall

Bannalec is a French community with around 5700 inhabitants (2021), located in the department of Finistère in the region Brittany.

Life and works

In this community, in an ordinary house in an ordinary street, there is an extraordinary collection of more than a thousand dolls, decoratively arranged in most rooms of the house. The collection was assembled by Annie André and is open to visitors on certain days and by appointment.

Annie André grew up on a farm on the edge of the town of Bannalec, where her father bred horses. As an adult, she would work in a nursing home for the elderly. Currently she is retired.

It all started when she was thirty years old and somehow came into possession of a doll. She was apparently so impressed by this, that she started collecting dolls. She looked around at flea markets and thrift stores, and bought dolls there for little money. Once her new hobby had become known, dolls were also donated by families whose children had grown up.

Where necessary, Annie herself made new clothes for the dolls. And so, over the years the collection grew and grew, with a place of honor for her very first acquisition.

Around 2004, Annie André came to live in the house in the rue de la Gare. In 2008, she opened the house to visitors, some of whom became regulars and assisted her..

The collection gradually became better known, through the website of the municipality and also through articles in the local and regional press.

Collections of dolls elsewhere 

In the field of art environments in Europe there are more sites filled with a large collection of dolls, such as in France the (now disappeared) decorated facade of the house of Francis Barale in the Bouches-du-Rhône. 

In Russia there is the collection of Margarita Travkina, in the Czech Republic the one of Lubomir Votava, in Ukraine the one of Vasil Hlushkovski (now closed) and in Latvia the one of Daina Kučere.

Documentation

* Article on the website of the municipality of Bannalec

* Article (2023) on the website of regional journal Le Télégramme

* Article (2017) on the website of regional newspaper Ouest France

Annie André

La maison des poupées

33 rue de la Gare

29380 Bannalec, dept Finistère, region Brittany, France

visitors welcome on open days and on appointment,

see website of the municipality

Google Streetview

Giulio Rancilio, Giardino delle sculture / Sculpture garden

this image and the next five from the website Tipeek Photos, 
published here in agreement with the editors

The woman on a horse, pictured above, is part of a garden with sculptures that can be seen from the street in Castiglione d'Adda, a municipality with about 4,800 inhabitants in the Lombardy region in northern Italy.

Life and works

The garden, with about thirty large and small sculptures, is a creation of Guillo Rancillio (1938-2020).

He became a bricklayer by profession, a job he had to give up in 1995 when he was 57 years old, due to major heart surgery.

Already at a young age Rancillio loved making drawings, a hobby he continued as an adult and expanded with the creation of paintings, with religious themes and portraits of animals as his main subjects.

Remaining unmarried all his life, he lived in a house in the centre of Castiglione d'Adda, which had been acquired many years earlier by a grandfather. The house has a garden along the street.

In 2000 Rancilio began making sculptures, following the technique of first making models of chicken wire, over which layers of cement are then spread. Once dried, the creations were painted in colour.

He did this creative work with great passion and working passionately he tried to depict the subject as realistically as possible. 

All together Rancilio made about thirty sculptures, which were situated in front of his house in the garden along the street named Via Alfieri. 

Some of his work can be seen in the illustrations in this post.

The collection includes all kinds of animals, such as a dog, a white rearing horse (now disappeared), a monkey riding a red Alfetta Duetto and some crazy birds. 

People were also depicted, such as women on a horse or on a scooter, a little girl on a bicycle, a man with a helmet on a Vespa and an older man sitting on a stool at a round table.

He also made creations with a religious slant, such as a sculpture of Jesus.

The wall of the neighboring house, which borders the garden, contains a large painted scene, and in the interior of Rancilio's house there is a large mural inspired by da Vinci's The Last Supper.

Giulio Rancilio died on March 8, 2020 at age 81. 

It is not clear whether the house is now occupied again.

Documentation

* Article (undated) on the website Costruttori di Babele
* Article (2024) on the website Tipeek Photos

Giulio Rancilio

Sculpture garden

Via V. Alfieri, 74

26823 Castiglione d'Adda, region Lombardy. Italy

can be seen from the street

Google Streetview

Jean-Claude Villot, Intérieur décoré et jardin de sculptures / Decorated interior and sculpture garden

all pictures courtesy of Sonia Terhzaz

The scene above with sporty characters is set in an art environment in Baron, a small commune with around 1200 inhabitants (January 2021) in the Gironde area in the south of France. about thirty kilometers east of Bordeaux.

Life and works

This art environment is a creation of Jean-Claude Villot, who was born in the early 1960s, initially was a carpenter, later worked in a factory and nowadays is retired.

The art environment consists of two completely different types of creations, on the one hand a large field of sculptures situated in the exterior, as can be seen in the very first image, and on the other hand a number of decorated walls in the interior of the house whose occupants own the decorated field.

The pictures around give an idea of the decorated interior.

The house, that was occupied for many years by Villot's meanwhile deceased mother, is now the home of his sister and her husband, who inherited it.

Villot began decorating the walls around 2010.

His decorations have a light-hearted character, generally depicting events from everyday life, such as someone making a walk, a stream of water with fish swimming around or a dog being walked.

 

The field of sculptures

Around 2015 Villot began making sculptures from wooden pallets he collected at the local dump.

In agreement with his sister and her husband, these sculptures got a spot on the field they owned, located next to the house in which they now lived. 

It's a field with a generous size that can accommodate a large number of creations.

Because he mainly used pallets Villot's creations are predominantly two-dimensional. They have no artistic pretensions, but they are distinctly amusing to look at

Like the murals inside, they are made by Villot to depict an everyday event and to provide commentary on it, if that's convenient.

These current events can include anything, such as activities of all kinds of political figures, but also of wearers of yellow vests, a common wear in France in recent years for people demonstrating.

Sport does have its own place in his creative work, especially rugby. When in 2023 the rugby championships were held in France, Villot paid a lot of attention to this event by making a sculpture of Antoine Dupont, who is captain of the France national rugby team.

The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris also got a lot of attention.

There are also comic characters. 

Above we already encountered Tintin, and below on the left one can see Mickey Mouse.

The designation Ponpon le Cheval (Ponpon the horse) in the image below right is a tribute to a horse that helped in a vineyard in the French Languedoc area.

The sculpture garden is located north-west of the centre of the commune of Baron, along the departmental route D936, opposite the company Aquitaine Matériaux.

Documentation
* Article (August 2023) in newspaper France Bleu

Jean-Claude Villot

Decorated interior and sculpture garden

32 Route de Branne (also D936)

33750 Baron, dept Gironde, region Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

the sculpture garden can be seen from the road

Google Streetview

Miroslav Stránský, Sochy v lese a výtvory podél pohádkového potoka / Sculptures in a forest and creations along a fairy stream

this picture and the next five courtesy of Pavel Konečný 

Havlíčkova Borová is a picturesque village with 950 inhabitants, located in the center of the Czech Republic in the border area of ​​the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands.

Life and works:

In this village lives Miroslav Stránský, who has become known because he created a rather special art environment. 

He was born in 1949 and trained as a bricklayer, but worked as a forest worker for most of his working life.

Once retired he had a lot of free time, which he mainly filled with making wooden sculptures. Around  2020 he made a special creation along a stream with moving mini-sculptures.

The wooden sculptures he makes are not placed near his home, but are situated in the forests and meadows near the village and many creations have also found a place in the gardens of inhabitants of the village.

The surrounding images give a good impression of what the creations look like. They are about as tall as adult humans and are made from pieces of wooden planks, tree trunks and other wooden material that is  suitable for being transformed into a creation.

Stránský doesn't paint his sculptures once ready, nor are they treated with a protective liquid. So they are rather vulnerable and will eventually be lost, as happened for example with the wooden sculptures of Frank Bruce in Scotland.

The image above shows one of the last sculptures made by Stránský. It is a creation in memory of his best friend, the hunting warden Pepík Smejkal. 

Local hunters consider this work as a memorial monument that can also be used to commemorate others and so they feel free to add their names. 

A wooden statue of a woodcutter stands to the right of the monument. The person on the left is Miroslav Stránský.

Pohádkový potůček / A fairy stream

Around 2020 Stránský started a new, special project. On a spot north of Havlíčkova Borová, where a stream is flowing along a local road, he added  to the stream's banks several miniature scenes with a fairy-tale character.

this image and the next three courtesy of Justyna Orlovska, 
from her website Off the Beaten Track

The miniature wooden houses are inhabited by miniature characters that can be associated with all sorts of Czech fairy tale figures.

A surprising feature of these figures is that they can make movements, which is realized by means of a paddle wheel hanging in the flowing stream.

Due to the fragile nature of the mobile creation, Stránský pays a lot of attention to regular maintenance. 

Scenes with all kinds of characters moving on flowing water are rare in the field of art environments. In this weblog there is an article about Vincent Navratil, who made such a creation in the community of Vir, also located in the Czech Republic

Documentation

* Article (April 2024) by Justyna Orlovska about the fairy stream, on her website Off the Beaten Track,

with a variety of photos

* Article (July 2024) about the memorial sculpture, in the magazine  of  radio Český rozhlas Vysočina

* Article (June 2024) about the creations along the fairy stream, in  the magazine of Rádio Střední Čechy, with a variety of photos

* Photo series (2023/2024) of the fairy stream, on the website Mapy.CZ

Video

* Video (April 2024, YouTube, 3'08") by Justyna Orlovska showing the moving parts of  the creation

Miroslav Stránský

Sculptures in a forest and creations along a fairy stream

Havlíčkova Borová, region Vysočina, Czech Republic

all elements of this art environment are situated 

in the open air, accessible to visitors

Alpo Jaakola, Patsaspuisto / Sculpture park

all pictures courtesy of Sophie Lepetit from her weblog

The sculpture park reviewed in this post is located in Karhula, a hamlet that is part of Loimaa, a municipality of about 15.000 inhabitants in south-western Finland. 

The park is situated near the E63 highway, approximately 8 km southwest of the built-up area of ​​Loimaa.

Life and works

The park was created by Alpo Jaakola (1-4-1929/7-2-1997) who was born in Loimaa. 

At an early age he showed an artistic talent and in 1951 he enrolled at a drawing school, where he stayed for only a few months because the teachers recognized his talent and felt that their lessons should not influence his further development. So Jaakola established himself as an independent visual artist, but wthout a formal art education.

He married Seija Nykänen, but this marriage did not last and ended in divorce. His second marriage, to a gallery owner, did survive and both Alpo Jaakola and Marja Jaakola, who passed away in 2012, now have a grave on the grounds of the sculpture park reviewed in this post.

 

Creating a sculpture park

In 1953, when he was 24, Jaakola took an important step.

In the wooded area in the hamlet of Karhula, where the sculpture park now is located, he built a forest hut from wooden planks, a construction  that would serve as a home to live in. 

This was the beginning of the transformation of the piece of forest into a sculpture park, a project that would take place over the next more than 25 years.

In making artistic creations to decorate the park, Jaakola focused mainly on sculptures, but he also produced all kinds of paintings, which were presented in accommodations built in the park.

In the first years of working on the collection, Jaakola must have had to improvise, because a studio only became available in the early 1960s, after he had built such a facility himself.

In the 1960s other facilities became available, such as a disused mortuary located in a nearby village, which could serve as a storage facility in the park. 

As for the sculptures, the park would eventually be decorated with about fifty large sculptures, largely made of cement, to a lesser extent of wood or iron. 

The images in this post give an idea of ​​the character of these creations.

The sculptures show something of Jaakola's style of creating, which testifies to a certain mysticism and primal power.

In 1972, a major event occurred, providing direction for the further development of the park at that time.

The local road near the park was converted into the E63 highway, which for Jaakola and his family meant that they were faced with a lot of traffic noise, but also with many curious motorists who wanted to take a look at the meanwhile well-known site. 

Jaakola was not focused on exploiting the park and he kept it closed to the public. 

He built a fence and posted signs prohibiting entry into the area. This did not limit public interest. the public kept coming and on a nice summer day as many as 200 people would stop to try to visit the sculptures.

As a result of all this, Jaakola lost his peace of mind and even indicated in an interview in 1974 that he was about to hate his sculptures.

He looked around for another accommodation and found it in a recently closed public school in the village of Torkkala in the eastern part of the municipality of Loimaa. In 1979 Jaakola and his wife Marja moved there.

Jaakola made new sculptures, together with Marja he planted hundreds of trees around the school and the former classrooms were used for exhibitions and numerous concerts. These activities led to Jaakola, who was also seen by some as a shaman of the region, being appointed professor (honoris causa in all probability) in 1985, which to my knowledge is unique in the European field of art environments by non-professionals.

After Alpo Jaakola's death in 1997, his wife continued to live in the former school and after she died in 2012, the accommodation was run by the couple's daughter Minni Nummila.

After Jaakola and family left the park in 1979, the accommodations and creations were left behind as they were, perhaps occasionally cared for by Jaakola. 

And then, in the early 1990s, the municipality of Loimaa had the idea of ​​purchasing the park as a tourist attraction, so in consultation with Jaakola a trial opening was organized in 1992. This was so successful that in 1993 the municipality decided to purchase the park and today the sculpture garden is an indispensable tourist attraction in Loimaa.

In the year 2000, a restoration project was carried out, largely financed by the European Union.

Documentation

* Website of the city of Loimaa with information about the museums in the city, including the park

* Website of the association of friends of Jaakola, with a lot of information and a variety of photos

* Facebook-account of the park, with recent information

* Weblog of Sophie Lepetit (February 2021). with a variety of photos

* Video

* Video (August 2020, YouTube, 1'22") by Rajala

Alpo Jaakola

Sculpture park

Aura-Pirkkatie 84, 

32300 Loimaa, dept Western Finland, region  Southwest Finland.  Finland

visitors welcome

Google Streetview with over 700 photos