Marcel Baudouin, Musée de plein air du Castel Maraîchin / Open-air museum of Castel Maraîchin

© Cliché Boutain - Propriété Mairie Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie 

(Documentation RADdO)

all postcards in this post: courtesy of the

 Réseau d’Archives et de Documentation de l’Oralité (RADdO)

The old postcards in this post show the panels that in the 1920s were mounted on fences and exterior walls of a house, locally known as Castle Maraîchin, in the then municipality of Croix-de-Vie in the French Vendée area.

Life and works

Marcel Baudouin, who made and fixed these panels, was born in Croix-de-Vie on November 15, 1860 in a well-to-do family that lived in that Castle Maraîchin. His father was a public works contractor.

© Mairie de Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Ed Boutain - 

Cliché Boutain, Croix-de-Vie

(Documentation RADdO)

After his primary education Baudouin went to the lyceum in La Roche sur Yon, followed by a study of medicine, first in Nantes, later from 1883 in Paris. Graduated, he worked in hospitals in Paris, represented France at international medical conferences and published articles for medical journals.

In his late thirties Baudouin for two years (1896-1898) was mayor of La Barre des Monts, a small community on the Vendée coast. Then he tried to get into national politics, but a candidacy for the House of Representatives failed, and he decided to take another turn.

This time he opted for the world of archaeology. In 1903 Baudouin, in his early forties, got in charge of the archaeological excavations in the Vendée, appointed in this function by the Ministry of Fine Arts with the approval of the General Council of the Vendée. This was the subject that would fascinate him for the rest of his life.

© Mairie de Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Ed Vassellier-Planchet - 
Phototypie Vassellier, Nantes - Collection Planchet

(Documentation RADdO)

In his new capacity as an archaeologist, he took part in and reported about many investigations and excavations, especially regarding the locations in the Vendée.

He examined the megaliths that still existed in the Vendée area, tracing signs engraved in those megaliths, which he interpreted as a referral to the configuration of the stars in neolithic times. He also reported about finding indications for a relationship between the Vendée and Atlantis.

Baudouin wrote many articles in archaeological journals, but he did not only address colleagues, he also wanted the general public to share in the knowledge that he and his colleagues collected.

Creating a open air museum

With regard to the latter, he proposed in 1920 to create a prehistoric open-air museum in Paris. It should be a wall in public space, fifty meters long and about three meters high, with a series of panels documenting the discoveries. However, the Paris authorities were not interested.

© Mairie de Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Ed Boutain 

- Cliché Boutain, Croix-de-Vie

(Documentation RADdO)

But Baudouin was convinced that exhibiting on a public wall was a much better way to reach the general public than the way museums used, mostly exhibiting their prehistoric collections in boring showcases in dimly lit rooms.

So he decided to create such a wall- museum himself, using the fences and exterior walls of Castel Maraîchin as exhibition space.

Starting in 1920 it would take him fourteen years to complete the Museum which includes dozens of cement panels containing both texts and casts of scientific and prehistoric objects.

In order to organize the information to be shown, Baudouin used the in his day most common classification of scientific knowledge, namely 1. Philosophy, 2. Religion, 3. Law and Economy, 

4. Philology, 5. Pure Sciences, 6. Applied sciences, 7. Fine Arts, 8. Literature, 9. History and 

10. General.

© Mairie de Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Ed Boutain - 

Cliché Boutain, Croix-de-Vie

(Documentation RADdO)

Using this general classification, the open-air exposition of pre-historic items was ordered as 

follows: Religion is mainly represented by prehistoric religions, Law and Economy by folklore, Philology by a genealogical tree, Pure science is subdivided in Anthropology and Prehistory (57), Botany (58) and Zoology (59). Applied Sciences are represented by Medicine (61), Fine Arts are represented by prehistoric sculptures, engravings, paintings. etc., Literature by medallions of literati and History by a genealogical tree and numerous specimens of painted coats of arms (93).

The above information is taken from an article that Baudouin published in the magazine La terre et la vie (see documentation) in 1935, a year after he considered the creation of his Open-air Museum as completed.

In the closing words of the article, Baudouin adds that he realizes that his creation may not stand the test of time, adding "But I hope my walls, covered and armored with premium cement panels, will last just as much as the dry brick walls of old Chaldea or Troy ..."  

This would prove to be too hopeful.

Baudouin's grave

picture by Selbymay, licensed under

Creative Commons

Marcel Baudouin died in Castel Maraîchin, January 25, 1941, aged 81. He was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, his grave decorated with the Menhir de la Tonelle, originally located in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez (Vendée).

In 1969 Chateau Marachaîn was sold by a family member of Baudouin. The decorations were removed, the house was emptied, the many documents and photos left behind were distributed among the archives of the Vendée department and a regional museum. 

Documentation

* Marcel Baudouin, "Une creation originale. Un musée en plein air" in: La terre et la vie (1935 nr 4). In this article Baudouin provides an explanation of the establishment and composition of the entire collection of panels)

* Un Barrien érudit de son temps (1860-1941) (An erudite Barrien of his time (1860-1941)), brochure published in the context of an exhibition about Marcel Baudouin, Bibliothèque La Boussole, la Barre de Monts (19/10-19/12/2018)
* A series of postcards on the website of the Réseau d’Archives et de Documentation de l’Oralité 
* Website with a series of postcards of the decorations

Marcel Baudouin

Open-air museum of Castel Marachaîn

formerly 43 Avenue de la Liberté

Croix-de-Vie, dept. Vendée, region Pays de la Loire, France

site doesn't exist anymore

Tony Hillier, Histon Sculpture Park

all pictures (July 2010) courtesy of Graham Kerr, Flickr

Above pictured art environment in the front yard of a house in the vicinity of the English city of Cambridge could not only be seen from the street, but passers-by could easily enter it because for that purpose the residents of the house had deliberately removed a small hedge between the street and the garden.

sculpture of a dog

Life and works

Tony Hillier, who created this art environment, was born in Birmingham in the early 1940s. After his primary education he got a state scholarship to study at Trinity College in Cambridge. After some years he moved to Selwyn College where he ended up as a lecturer of physiology.

In 1968 he married and Joan and Tony would be together for 46 years, until at age 72 Tony died in November 2014, after in December 2013 he got a stroke from which he never recovered.

details of Hillier's sculptures, above at the left a dog, at the right a male face

Creating a sculpture garden

In 1999 when he was in his late fifties, Tony Hillier retired early from his job at Selwyn College. 

Now he had more time to be creative. 

He had always made paintings, about which almost nothing has been published so far. It was first mentioned by Joan Hillier in an interview she had in 2020 in the context of the Keepersproject (see documentation). 

After retiring, Hillier initially focused on making bamboo and paper mache creations (now mostly lost), but then switched to making sheet metal sculptures, an activity that would largely determine the last part of his life.

Hillier made his sculptures from pieces of sheet steel that he welded together in the form he envisioned. His first sculpture started as a cat, then while working turned into a tiger, to end up as a lion. 

The lion was given a place in the front garden and stood there alone for some time, but not for long, because Hillier turned out to be a diligent worker and the lion soon got company of other sculptures, mainly depictions of animals, people and fairy-tale characters.

father, son and dog 

And so the front yard of Tony and Joan's home in Histon, a village just north of Cambridge, gradually turned into an art environment, a site often referred to as Histon Sculpture Park.

Dominated by a giraffe, tall 22 feet (6.7 meters), the garden includes dogs, owls, pigs, lions, tigers, vultures and some human characters, mostly displayed stand alone, but occasionally also in groups, as in the scene above that (most likely) depicts a father, a son and a dog.

This scene also shows that Hillier's work often has a caricatured slant, such as the boy's large head and narrow neck, and the man's bulky nose and lavish peaked cap. Other sculptures also show that some features are emphasized more strongly, such as feet, eyes and lips.

another dog

The sculptures also have a cartoonist character to indicate that one does not have to view them reverently, but can simply deal with them.

Thus, children were allowed to climb a large sculpture of a pig, with the record being 11 children at a time ....

And climbing was also the case for a 8 feet (2.4 meter) high sculpture of a horse, and not just for kids, because the photographer who took the photos in this post, at Hillier's insistence had to climb the horse and sit in the saddle before he could leave.

character with a big nose

Although Hillier never wanted to sell his sculptures, he not only made sculptures to decorate the garden, but he also liked to make sculptures to donate to public institutions in the area, especially those institutions concerned with young people or education, like schools and public libraries.

For example, there is a report of a donation to a school in Cambourne due to its tenth anniversary. In September 2009 at the school a man-sized sculpture was revealed of a girl sitting on a chair with a dog looking at the floor with a cockerel and a pig.

a pig

After Tony Hillier died in November 2014, his wife Joan continued to care for the sculpture garden.

In March 2020, Joan announced publicly that in the spirit of her late husband, the sculptures would be given away to public institutions interested in placing them in their location.

A teacher at a primary school in Hardwick responded immediately and obtained three sculptures for the school as well as for the village of Hardwick.

Documentation
* On the internet there is still a reference to the personal website of Tony Hillier; however, this site is no longer available
* In July 2020 a new website was published, entitled The Keepersproject, about people who are engaged in keeping art environments in the UK. The site documents Hillier's Sculpture Garden with a series of pictures and has an interview with Joan Hillier, an interview in which (for the first time) Hillier's paintings are mentioned
* On weblog By Stargoose And Hanglands (January 2018) a short article about the site, with a series of pictures
* Article (October 2014) on BBC Cambridgeshire

Tony Hillier
Histon Sculpture Park
99 Cottenham Road 
CB24 9ET  Histon, Cambridge, dept Cambridgeshire, region East of England, UK

site can be seen and freely entered from the road

streetview

Charles Palmer, Teddy Bear Garden

picture by unknown photographer

from website freshford.com

Although above depicted English art environment with reportedly 300 teddy bears made of cement, disappeared years ago, the house to which the site belonged is currently (2020) still referred to as Teddy Bear Cottage, as can be seen in the screenprint below.

screenprint of the website of real estate agent On The Market
advertising the Teddy Bear Cottage as an object to rent

Life and works

The house, located on 14 Church Street in the town of Bradford-on-Avon, not far from Bristol, in the Wiltshire region in the south-west of England, was bought in 1935 by Charles Edmund Palmer, who was born in 1883 or 1884. 

The internet hasn't much biographic information about him. He had a job with British Railways as a line inspector, his wife was Harriet Isabelle Palmer, the couple lived in Bath in the early 1940s, but when because of the war their house was destroyed, they moved in 1942 to the house in Bradford-on-Avon.

Creating a Teddy Bear Garden

After Mr Palmer retired, probably in the late 1940s, he developed a hobby of making teddy bears out of cement, which he grouped together in the garden belonging to the house. Thus arose in the 1950s and 1960s an art environment with hundreds of teddy bears, a site that became known as the Teddy Bear Garden.

British Pathé in 1961 made a film (now a video 1'25" on YouTube) that shows Mr Palmer at work.

The video shows how he puts the cement in a mold and processes it into a bear shape, which is whitewashed after drying. 

The sculptures generally have the same appearance, sitting with arms forward, sometimes standing with arms raised. The setup is simple, in a circle, sitting in a row at a table, and sometimes attributes are added, such as a book or a cane. Occasionally a specific scene is depicted, such as a schoolmaster bear teaching some student bears.

As is often the case with art environments. it is the overall picture of the hundreds of white sculptures that gives the site its specific appearance, which in this case is further enhanced by the sloping surface of the installation.

In the 1950s and 1960s the site attracted visitors, mainly from the immediate vicinity.

The end of the Teddy Bear Garden

After Charles Palmer and his wife had died (it's not clear when), their house was for sale. In the 1970s it became part of the office and laboratory of the St Ivel dairying company, which at that time settled in different buildings on Church Street. In the mid 1990s the company left the location and it is likely that he firm in the approximately twenty years it was on Church Street, hasn't cared for the bear garden.

At the time of the departure of the company an employee took four bears with her, because she assumed that the  site would be demolished. The new residents of 14 Church Street have restored seven bears. And maybe other people also have acquired some bears.

Its quite possible that the remaining teddy bears were so battered that demolition of the garden was inevitable.

So some of the site's items may still exist, but the Teddy Bear Garden as such is history.

Charles Edmund Palmer
Teddy Bear Garden
14 Church Street
Bradford-on-Avon, county Wiltshire, region South-West England,  England, UK

site doesn't exist anymore

Sergey Bondarenko, Муsей "Kop'ya Krevskogo Zamka" / Museum "Replica of Krevo Castle"

this picture (2018) and the next five

courtesy of Sergey Bondarenko

For many years, nothing indicated that Sergey Bondarenko, who in his young years liked to make paintings and drawings and later made small wooden, metal or ceramic creations he sold on markets, would become the creator of a life-size singular architecture, a 1:10 scale replica of a centuries-old castle. 

But then, in 2016 the inhabitants of the village of Chukhni in Belarus saw this happen.

October 2019

Life and works

Born in Arkhangelsk, in the far north of Russia, Bondarenko after his primary education entered military service, lived for a while in St. Petersburg and then in Svetlogorsk, where he met his future wife Marina. In 1986, the couple moved to Smorgon in Belarus, where Sergey worked for five years as a designer of posters, banners and the like at a tractor factory, while Marina had an administrative position at that factory.

In the early 1990s the couple started selling self made artistic products, such as clay figurines and  pendants with stones and amulets, at markets and festivals in Lithuania and Poland, and even in Moscow.

May 2020

After their two daughters had left home, the couple wanted to leave the city and in 2013 they moved to the village of Chukhni, a few kilometers from Krevo, north-west of Minsk. Due to its history and centuries old castle, now a ruin, this village attracts tourists who might be potential buyers of artful creations.

Once established in the village, Bondarenko came up with an idea that would largely determine his further life. He decided to make a life-size replica 1:10 of Krevo Castle near Chukhni as it was in former times. The project is a combination of a tribute to the past, the pleasure of creating a special creation and making money to live on.

Creating a replica

It took the necessary consultation with the local authorities, but Bondarenko got the permit to realize the intended construction (incidentally not on the spot he had in mind, because the authorities preferred the area around his house).

The construction had to become a building with towers and ramparts surrounding an inner court with an area of approximately 80 square meters.

summer 2019

Work started in 2016, the first tower was completed in the summer, the second in the autumn of that year. The largest tower is 5 meters high 

The outer walls of the towers and of the ramparts have been made of concrete to which homemade small brick particles of clay are attached, as can be seen in above picture. Using a mold Bondarenko makes these stones of clay which he takes in a nearby quarry.

In the courtyard cast metal knights with a height of 20 centimeters will appear, probably in the capacity of a complete army. An example of those characters can be seen in the third photo from above.

picture made in 2020

The grounds surrounding the castle are enclosed with an iron fence containing horseshoes. The decorative creations also include shield-shaped decorations, as shown in the photo above.

There is a plan to construct a circular labyrinth on the grounds round the house. Its design is already available.

an aerial view of the castle under construction

 June 2020

Documentation

* Website of Museum Replica of Krevo Castle, (pictures, information about opening hours, etc.)

* Article (November 2017) on the website of newspaper Belarus Today

* Article (August 2018) on the website of newspaper Zviazda 

* Article (December 2019) on the website of newspaper News Tut, with a map and information about the actual development of the village of Chukhny

* Article (June 2020) on the website of newspaper Realt Onliner, with a variety of recent pictures of the site

Videos

* Account of the site on YouTube

* Video by TV Belarus24 (August 2018, YouTube, 26'12")

* Video by Sergey Bondarenko on Facebook (0'40", June 2018), a view of the site from the street

Sergey Bondarenko

Museum "Replica of Krevo Castle"  

House nr 43

Chukhni, Belarus

visitors welcome / artful items for sale