Willem Berkhout, Beeldenkas / Greenhouse with mosaic sculptures

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this picture and the next two thanks to Timo Reko

Schipluiden, a part of the municipality of Midden-Delfland, is a village of some 4500 inhabitants in the Westland region in the Netherlands, an area known for growing flowers, vegetables, and fruit in greenhouses. Such a greenhouse located near Schipluiden has become known for a special collection of mosaic sculptures it includes.

Life and works

It's an art environment created by Willem Berkhout, who was born in 1950 in Schipluiden as the fourth of seven children. His father owned a greenhouse horticulture business, so it was obvious that Berkhout in his youth not only helped with the work in the cultivation, but that he also got an education at a horticultural school.

Berkhout married in 1976 and a few years later, together with a brother, he took over his father's company, growing orchids from 1986. 

Throughout his life Berkhout was provided with a lively imagination and when visiting museums during holidays he noticed that he was very interested in art, in particular sculptures, so at the start of the new century -in his early fifties and without any training as an artist- he began making sculptures himself.
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He opted for a specific type of sculpture, namely man-sized, partially realistic, partially fancied depictions of human characters, inlaid with mosaics.

The mosaic is applied to a layer of cement that forms the outside of the sculptures, while the inside can consist of metal braiding, just as Berkhout for the infrastructure of his first sculpture used an old bed spiral. But it also happens that Berkhout makes his creations entirely from concrete.

The artist often visits thrift stores to get things that can be used in making creations, such as a number of colanders that could be used as helmets for the soldiers of the Spartan army present in the collection

From a stock of tiles Berkhout -using a tile cutter- carefully cuts the pieces of mosaic needed to decorate the sculptures.

Apart from the group of Spartan soldiers, there are other groups, such as the gods of the primeval Gaag (first inhabitants of the region), veterans in old wheelchairs. a circle of Westland bar women and a march of feminists,

Currently (2019) Berkhout has made some 200 sculptures that are lined up in the greenhouse. Around 300 large paintings by the Hague painter Jacob Kanbier hang on the walls.

Berkhof's art environment has remained a secret for many years. In its first years the establishment and the growing size of the collection was only known by family and friends. However, in 2012 the artist decided to open the greenhouse to visitors.

Currently (2019) the site has become well-known in the region and it is visited by some 3000 people a year, both individuals and groups, such as clubs of cyclists, school classes and groups of people from a home for the elderly.

this picture and the next one 
from the Facebook page of the site

The greenhouse is situated in a beautiful pasture area, but the location is somewhat isolated. From a provincial road (N468) a bridge (flanked by a sculpture) must be passed  and then via a dead end road one reaches after 650 meters the greenhouse.

As the video in the documentation shows, Berkhout at the end of 2018 sought publicity to announce that he is looking for a different location to accommodate the collection.

Documentation

* Berkhout's website
* The site on Facebook
* Article (May 2017) in a regional edition of Dutch journal Algemeen Dagblad

Video
* Video (December 2018, 1'47")  by regional TV Omroep West on YouTube

Willem Berkhout, Beeldenkas (Greenhouse with sculptures)

Gaagweg 15

2636 AK Schipluiden, Netherlands

can be visited Monday to Saturday, 10-18 hrs

streetview

bridge leading to access road  (Streetview)

Sirio Nicoli, Les dragons de Jarny / The dragoons of Jarny

pictures courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, from her weblog

Jarny is a community of some 8000 inhabitants in the Meurthe et Moselle region in the east of France. 

Along one of the access roads to the center of the town there is a house with a striking balustrade because of the large-scale sculptures on it, an art environment sometimes referred to as Les dragons de Jarny  (The dragoons of Jarny) 

Life and work

This art environment has been created by Sirio Nicoli (1920-2003), who was born in Italy and later migrated to France where he had a job as a miner. Except for these data and that he was married and had a daughter, the internet doesn't have other biographical information about Nicoli, not even when he started making sculptures.

His sculptures are not only on the balustrade, but they are also set up in the garden of the house.. Such as the sculpture below of a person wearing a mining helmet on his head, a creation that could be a self-portrait.

In addition to the miner's sculpture, the garden also includes other smaller-sized sculptures, such as representations of Egyptian deities and Buddhas.

The most imposing creations of course are the  sculptures of large animals. Those who lived in prehistoric times such as various dinosaurs in different poses, mostly provided with sharp teethes and fangs, but also animals that still live in our time, such as elephants, and then also fantasy animals, such as the dragon above the entrance portal.

Nicoli made these extensive creations by first building up a rough shape by means of an infrastructure consisting of iron wicker, foam rubber from old mattresses and pieces of sheet metal, after which he finished this rough shape with cement and paint.

The prehistoric animals and the dragons were largely treated with green paint, with certain parts in an appropriate color, such as the teeth of the dinosaurs. 

After Nicoli died in 2003, over the years the layer of paint has disappeared  and the sculptures now have a gray appearance.

In addition, the vegetation is increasing and threatens to overgrow the sculptures on some places.

Nicoli's wife died in 2021, and then Nicoli's daughter and her partner moved into the house. They renovated the interior, and Nicoli's son-in-law takes care of restoring and maintaining the sculptures.

Documentation
* Article in Bruno Montpied's book Le gazouillis des éléphants.2017

* Entry (June 11, 2019) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Article (January 2025) on website Tipeek Photos, with a series of photos

first published June 2019, updated August 2025

Sirio Nicoli
Sculpture garden ("Les dragons de Jarny)
45 rue Pasteur (departmental road D603)
54800 Jarny, dept Meurthe-et-Moselle,  region Grand Est
can be seen from the road
streetview (2023)

Julos Beaucarne, Cercle des Pagodes / Circle of Pagodas

this picture and the next two courtesy of Ernst Gülcher

The above depicted circle of pagodas made from stacked wooden reels in different sizes used to transport electricity cables, are reminiscent of the neolithic stone circles such as the one in Stonehenge. 

This singular architecture, designed by Julos Beaucarne (1936-2021), was established in the late 1990s in a field near the Belgian community of Beauvechain.

Life and works

Born in Ecaussinnes, a community some 50 km south of Brussels, Beaucarne in the early 1960s settled in Brussels. He would become famous as a singer, but he was also known as an actor, poet, author and sculptor.

As a singer, his first 45-rpm gramophone record was released in 1964, followed by annual or bi-annual new records. His repertoire, performed in French, was not only appreciated in Belgium, but also in France and in the Canadian province of Quebec. He recorded 49 albums (over 450 songs), wrote 28 books and appeared in four movies.

Although Beaucarne could be contradictory, he was best known for his humanism and optimism, qualities that became only more pronounced after in 1975 his life partner was murdered with knife stabs by an unbalanced young man.

In the late 1990s he attracted a lot of interest by organizing a large concert on a site on which he also installed a circle of pagodas and in the early years of the new century he began making sculptures from second-hand and surplus material, as in the field of art singulier, a creative activity about which not much has been reported on the internet and about which no images are available either.

In 2015, at the age of 79, Beaucarne withdrew from publicity. and currently he lives in Tourinnes-la-Grosse (Deurne), some 50 km east of Brussels.

The Circle of Pagodas

Years before the Circle of Pagodas was installed, Beaucarne was already busy with reels. In 1992 he installed three groups of nine reels in different places in Wallonia, such as the inclined plane near Ronquières in the canal from Brussels to Charleroi, the garden of the Abbey palace in St Hubert and Nodebais (Nodebeek), a hamlet of artists, part of Beauvechain (Bevekom)

In the late 1990s, when the 21st century was approaching, Beaucarne came up with the idea of  organizing a huge concert in anticipation of the coming century, a concert that should take place in the open air on a site with a circle of pagodas on it, which could provide the concertgoers with energy to find their way in the post-industrial world of the next millennium.

In this context, supported by volunteers and in agreement with the authorities, the circle of pagodas was installed on a field near the Ferme de Wahenge, a farm in the community of Beauvechain (Bevekom), about ten km away from Beaucarne's current home in Tourinnes-la-Grosse.

The 36 wooden structures that make up the creation, are assembled from 252 reels that in daily practice are provided with electricity cables, used in the installing of electrical networks.

Both the separate numbers in 252 and in 36 add up to 9, a number that for Beaucarne has a special meaning, since the death of his partner was caused by nine stabs.

Spiritually, the number nine, which is the last single number and a combination of other numbers (3x3), is seen as the number of perfection, or completion. Perhaps this was what Beaucarne wished the world for the 21st century.

Whatever the case may be, the inauguration of the Circle of Pagodas was explicitly linked to the number 9, because the open air concert started on September 9, 1999 at 9:09 pm exactly, or at 9/9/99 / 9:09.

It was a festivity attended by some 3000 people, who not just may have enjoyed the music, but also may have experienced the magical atmosphere created by the presence of the pagodes and the generating of energy attributed to these structures.

As Beaucarne himself said: 

"The site of the Pagodas is a huge sensor and a huge wave transmitter. 36 powerful transmitters to send messages to the end of the world, 36 powerful sensors to receive messages from the universe as a whole. In this magical place we can reach the end of the universe in a picosecond, just by thought. The site of the Pagodas is a place of reconciliation between men, the earth and the universe".

In addition to the pagodas, the site also includes a few other structures, such as a huge tipi, a theater and an Izba type house that was built on the basis of the golden section.

Unlike Stonehenge, which attracts many visitors and especially during solstices is crowded by people who are spiritually engaged, the Circle of Pagodas has not become a busy site.

Julos Beaucarne died on September 18, 2021.

Documentation

* Biography of Beaucarne on Wikipedia (in French)
* Various entries on a weblog by Beaucarne
* Article (undated) in a weblog on Skynet 
* Interview (2011) in a Belgian newspaper with a a variety of quotes by Beaucarne

* Article (January 2018) on the weblog of Ernst Gülcher (in Flemish)

* Movie (2017, 53'0 by Eric de Moffarts entitled l'Air de Julos (also available on DVD)

Julos Beaucarne

Cercle des Pagodes

near the Ferme de Wahenge

Rue de Wahenge 43,

1320 Beauvechain, Belgium

can be seen from the road