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

sculptures by Camille Vidal at la Fabuloserie
this picture and the next one (January 2014) 

courtesy of Radek Labarzewski 

This post is about a site that meanwhile has disappeared: Camille Vidal's Garden of Eden, created from around 1955, located in the community of Agde in the south of France, along the Mediterranean coast.

When in 2009 I wrote the first version of this post, it was rather difficult to find information on the internet about Vidal's life and works and pictures were not available.

Then,  in 2010 Laurent Danchin sent more biographic information (see comments below), in November 2013 Jean Louis Bigou published on his weblog a reprint of an article by Yves Rouquette (see documentation), in May 2014 I could add Radek Labarzewski's pictures, that show some sculptures of Vidal as currently exhibited in la Fabuloserie and in January 2021 Radek Labarzewski published an article about Vidal on his (renewed) weblog.

Eve and Adam 

Life and works

Camille Vidal (1894-1978) was a mason and cement maker who lived in Bézièrs in the south of France. At a later age he settled in nearby Agde.

Retired around 1955, Vidal began making sculptures from reinforced cement which he displayed in the garden around his house. He impersonated 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. He also made a lot of sculptures of animals, which meant that the site was also referred to as Noah's Ark.

this picture and the next one from the article (1983) by Yves Rouquette

Adam and Eve on the background

All together Vidal made some 150 sculptures.

Don Camillo and Peppone

It is not clear if Vidal himself had given his site a name, but this art environment has become known as the Garden of Eden, In their book Les bâtisseurs de l'imaginaire Clovis and Claude Prévost used the name Arche de Noë, Noah's Ark.

Site demolished, sculptures partly rescued

After Vidal died in 1978 the house was sold. The new owners were not amused by the presence of the sculpture garden, mainly because it generated visits by interested people.

Fortunately, before the garden was demolished, Alain Bourbonnais, director of la Fabuloserie in Dicy, bought some 54 items (Laurent Danchin reports that at the last minute the city of Agde wanted to acquire the sculptures, however without caring to pay for it).

As the first two pictures show, the rescued sculptures are displayed in la Fabuloserie in front of a red wall. This wall is a construction designed by Alain Bourbonnais. It has no artistic relation with Vidal's site and its decorations are rescued items from François Portrat's art environment.

The site in Agde has disappeared completely and currently no one over there seems to be aware of (or would be pleased to be remembered to) the fact that the city once had such a wonderful collection of outsider art within its borders.

Documentation
* French photographers, film makers and writers Clovis and Claude Prévost have documented Vidal's creations in their publication Les bâtisseurs de l'imaginaire, Ed de l'Est, 1990, -275 p.
* Yves Rouquette,  "Les bâtisseurs de l'imaginaire", in Les cahiers de l'office (regional de la culture Languedoc-Roussillon), no 2 (1983), p 6-12. Rouquette (1936-2015) was a writer living in the south of France. His article (reprinted here) discusses the art environments by Antoine Puéo, Victor Grazzi and Camille Vidal. This text was republished in Bulletin des amis de François Ozenda, nr 35 (1988)

* Report of a visit to la Fabuloserie (January 2014) by Radek Labarzewski and friends, as published in Znalezienie weblog (May 2014)

* An article (January 2021) about Vidal by Radek Labarzewski in his renewed weblog Znaleziene

first published November 2009, last revised January 2021

Camille Vidal
Jardin de l'Eden
(formerly) Agde, dept Hérault, region Occitanie, France
site no longer extant,
(rescued sculptures exhibited in:) 

La Fabuloserie. 

Dicy (from 2016 Charny-Orée-de-Puisaye), France