July 31, 2013

Marcel Debord, Lou cabanou d'ou mounié / The cabin of the miller


all pictures courtesy of Thierry Bucquoy,
from his weblog ¹

Like the stories of so many outsider environments, what follows is a story of transience.

Life and works

Written in Occitan, a language descendant of latin as spoken in the Roman empire and traditionally the language used in southern France, the name of this cabin refers to the former profession of its owner: operator of the mill of Rochevideau, a community located in a rural part of the Périgord

Marcel Debord (1909-1994) managed the mill for many years but then, in his early fifties he got such problems with his legs that he had to decide to finish this job.

He began a new life, focusing on making all kinds of decorative items from iron and sculptures from concrete. These creations he displayed on and around a small cabin located not far from the mill. He probably used this cabin also as a workshop.


The decorative items included horse hoes, all kinds of iron utensils and various other iron elements like spoons and forks, which in a decorative way were attached to a concrete plate.

Debord would use molds to create his concrete sculptures. He mainly depicted small animals from the area where he grew up and lived, such as a snail, a pigeon, an owl, or a swan, as in the picture below. 

All together a bestiary of familiar animals...


Living alone, these small constructions may have been special to Debord. 

As Thierry Bucquoy in his blog says:
Les animaux poussent comme des fleurs
Il suffit de les arroser,
De les apprivoiser pour en faire des amis
Partenaire de sa solitude

The animals grow like flowers
Just sprinkle them,
Tame them, to turn them into friends
Partners of his solitude


But then Debord also has made a small number of sculptures of people, impersonations which also refer to his homeland, such as a peasant woman near a well, a fisherman, a hunter, a miller....


Debord may have been active in creating this environment for some thirty years. However, as far as I know, during his life he hasn't got any publicity in France on a national level.

Bruno Montpied visited him in 1992, but (rightly so) hesitated to disclose Debord's whereabouts, because of his poor health. Years later, in his Éloge des jardins anarchiques (2011) the author has reported vividly about his visit to the site and his meeting with Debord.

Debord died in 1994 and following his death the site has been left uncared for. In 1999 a big storm, which struck down a lot of trees, has demolished most of the site too.

Documentation/more pictures
* Jean-Luc Thuilier, Arts et singuliers d'art en Périgord, Savignac-les-Églises (Ed. Gold), 2007
* Bruno Montpied, "Les cabanes du meunier Debord. Un jardinier d'outils", in: Éloge des jardins anarchiques, p. 87-93. Montreuil-sur-Bois  (l'Insomniaque), 2011
* Weblog "le blog de Thierry B."

Marcel Debord
Lou cabanou d'ou mounié
La Capelle-Faucher (hamlet Rochevideau), dept Dordogne, region Nouvelle Aquitaine, France
site doesn't exist anymore

note
¹ Thierry Bucquoy and his partner Maryline live in Ligueux, in the Périgord area. Their garden Le jardin des délices, regularly houses art expositions. In his weblog Thierry writes about gardens, art, artists, and a variety of other subjects

July 28, 2013

Yiorgos Chavaledakis, ΚΟΥΜΟΣ πέτρινη κατασκευή / Koumos stone construction


pictures are screenprints from the video by
Sergio Flaquer Carrera (see documentation)
published here in agreement with the author

Yiorgos Chavaledakis's stone construction is an ensemble of buildings, structures and sculptures made from stones varying in shape, color and size (from small to some meters) which Yiorgos collected in the neighbouring mountains.

The site, located in the community of Kalyve near Chania on Crete, is named Koumos, a Greek term to denote a shed with a typical form, as depicted in the next picture that shows the one made by Chavaledakis.


The internet has no biographic information about Chavaledakis.

In 1990 he began creating the site and it took him over ten years to complete it.

Currently this art environment accommodates a Greek tavern and restaurant, where large numbers of guests can be welcomed. 

The building which houses the tavern, is lavishly decorated with stones, in the same way as the chapel on the site, as shown below.


Yiorgos' creative talent is also reflected in various stand alone sculptures ....


.... mosaic decorated images ....


and frescoes in high relief on the walls.


Documentation
* The official Koumos website
* Koumos on Facebook
* Entry on the website Kids love Greece
* Entry on Tripadvisor

Video
* Video by Serflac (4'01". July 2013, YouTube)



Yiorgos Chavaledakis
Koumos
Kalyves
730073 Chania, 
Crete, Greece
open to the public that visits the tavern

July 18, 2013

Charles Clave, Musée Charlot/Charlot's Museum


                   
pictures from the website Empreinte d'Art
(not operational anymore)

Il les avait vus.... He had seen them.........

Charles Clave (1920-1998), nicknamed Charlot, from the French community of Frasne-le-Chateau, claimed he had an astral contact with aliens, whose likeness he captured in homemade sculptures in a naive style.

Life and works

Probably all his life  Clave lived in Frasne-le-Chateau, in any case he lived there with his mother in a house on the rue des Grandes Vergers, later living there alone after his mother had died.

He had various jobs. Initially he was a cultivator, then he did a training to become a police officer, a job he waived however to become a postman instead, while he later became a mason. 


In the 1950s Clave began making sculptures, focusing in particular on extraterrestrial characters.

All together he has made some twenty sculptures of aliens, which he exposed in the sleeping room around his centrally located bed. This ensemble of sculptures, a mini art environment, locally became known as Musée Charlot. As far as I understand it could be visited by the public on Sunday afternoons.

Following Clave's death, the house was put on sale. It was bought by Christine Péquignol, who has (had?) an art gallery on the premises, named Empreinte d'Art (Art's Footprint). By a plaque on the facade the memory of Charles Clave is kept alive.

The city hall of Frasne-le-Chateau takes care of the sculptures and other creations by Clave which they received as a legacy.

Documentation\
Website Habitants-paysagistes (Lille Art Museum, from March 2018) has an entry about Clave with a variety of photographs by Francis David (1983, 1990) 
* Article in regional journal La Presse de Gray, July 2009 (not available anymore)
* French cultural  magazine Création Franche, no 5, 1992 (out of my reach), has an article by Bernard Chevassu about Clave (In 2014 Bruno Montpied referred in his weblog to this article) 

first published July 2013, last revised March 2018

Charles Clave
Musée Charlot
17 rue des Grands Vergers
70700 Frasne-le-Chateau, dept Haute-Saône, region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
site doesn't exist anymore
the city hall has stored legated sculptures

July 14, 2013

Exposition at Cathédrale de Jean Linard



On the premises of the site La Cathédrale de Jean Linard this summer (2013) there will be an exposition that features outsider artists from Italian descent who made art environments, both some born and living in Italy, and some born in Italy but living and working in France.

This exposition is for one part a reprise of the one that was held in October 2012 in Rome, focusing upon Giovanni Cammarata, Luigi Lineri and Bonaria Manca, for another part it highlights Luigi Buffo, Joseph Donadello and the sculptor Joseph Barbiero.

Organized by the association Patrimoines Irréguliers de France in cooperation with the Italian group Costruttori di Babele, the exposition can be seen in July and September.

In connection with this event I published  in OEE Texts a review of Italian born outsiders creating art environments in France

Documentation
A booklet about this exposition is available at Calameo



Costruttori di Babele, bâtisseurs Italiens d'univers insolites
Cathédrale de Jean Linard
Les Poteries
18250 Neuvy-les-deux-clochers, France
July and 7-29 September 2013 (Saturdays/Sundays)