Eero Leinonen, Veistospuutarha / Sculpture garden

picture courtesy of Finnish photographer Jorma Luhta

Above depicted site with a variety of totem-like wooden sculptures is located in Sarakylä, a small community in Finland, part of the municipality of Pudasjärvi, some 60 km south. 

Life and works

 

This art environment was created by Eero Leinonen. He was born in Sarakylä in 1938 and would spend his entire childhood there.  

In later life, in 2012, he wrote a self-published book entitled Mennen ajan elämää Livojokivarressa (Going through life on the Livojoki River), in which he speaks clearly about the concerns he has known in his youth.

a girl seated on a stone (2009)

this picture and the next two by Eero Paso 

from his collection on Pinterest 

After the primary education in his native village, Leinonen received a technical vocational training at the Northern Ostrobothnia Vocational School in Taivalkoski, some 70 km east. Then he had a job at a company printing newspapers and got married in the late 1950s.

After a number of the years, Leinonen developed a severe allergy to printing ink. He had to stop working and received a disability pension.

At that time or some years later, Leinonen and his wife Hilja moved to Sarakylä where they went to live in a house located in a wooded area, about five kilometers from the village.

a girl holding a snake (2000)

Leinonen's activity as a sculptor began in 1998, when he was entitled to a retirement pension. 

How it all started exactly also remained unclear to Leinonen himself. He has said that somehow he was inspired by a tree in a neighboring forest. It started to grind in his head, he appropriated the tree trunk, took an ax and an angle grinder and while working, under his hands a woman appeared carrying snakes in a basket. 

After that there was no more stopping. 

Working mainly with pine trees from the neighboring forest, Leinonen continued to make sculptures, which because of their origin from tree trunks often evoke an association with totem poles.

fertility (2005)

Leinonen's art environment includes a varied collection of sculptures.

There are a number of portrayals of female characters, such as the creation depicted above called Fertility, showing a woman carrying a basket of fruits, with a small child at her foot. 

These sculptures of women are executed in a realistic style, which also applies to the depictions of male persons, which are sometimes depicted with a rake, a spear or similar item.

picture (2007) by Lauri Oino, 

Maaseudun Sivistysliitto (Association of Rural Education)

There are also sculptures of animals, and these often have a more imaginative expression, such as a grinning fish with large teeth.

A special feature of the collection is that due to the color scheme and the addition of specific elements, some sculptures evoke an Indian connotation. For this Leinonen has no explanation, the subjects simply appear in his head.

Documentation

* Article in the ITE website

* Article (July 2007) by Jukka Turunen in Finnish newspaper Kaleva 

Eero Leinonen

Sculpture garden

Sarakylä, Pudasjärvi, Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland

streetview

Laurent Mercier, Chateau dominant la haute vallée de la Monne / Castle dominating the upper Monne valley

pictures are screenprints from the video in the documentation

In the early Middle Ages the European countryside had Donjons, fortified residential towers. These buildings developed into Castles by adding walls and buildings. and such sites were often equipped with round towers with battlements. 

Both donjons and castles were not only intended to resist the enemy, but also to dominate the environment, not just the landscape, but especially the workers and peasants living around.

In the field of art environments it occasionally happens that someone feels inspired to build such a donjon or castle. Such a building is not meant to control the surrounding area, but to express the feelings the creation entails, such as memories and appreciation of building methods in earlier times, performing an act against contemporary architecture, or simply the urge to build something beautiful.

Consider the story of Gregorius Halman, who single-handedly built a castle in the Frisian countryside in the Netherlands, or experience what motivated Didier Lobert when he (also single-handedly) built a donjon in Saint-Germain-sur-Avre in Normandy, France.

Looking at the image above, the depicted building, as it stands in the green landscape, appears to have been built mainly because of its beautiful appearance. It's dominating the environment in a peaceful, decorative way.

Life and works

The building in question is a single-handedly built creation by Laurent Mercier, located in the small hamlet Mareuge, part of the municipality of Vernet-Sainte-Marguerite, in the heart of the volcano rich area near Clermont Ferrand in France (Parc des Volcans d'Auvergne).

Mercier, about whom the internet hasn't biographic information, started building the castle in 2013, a project he would devote all his free time to. 

Interviewed by regional television in September 2020, he said he believed he would need three more years to complete the project.

Although Mercier uses contemporary materials, he makes every effort to do this in such a way that an atmosphere of earlier times is created. For example, floors haven't been made of poured concrete, but of tiles that have been shaped one by one by hand.

The same goes for the vaults. These were made according to the same principles as in earlier times, first the arches were made and between them blocks of cement were arranged in such a way that they appear to be stones.

The fact that Mercier decided to build a vault says something about his motivation with regard to constructing the tower. A vault cannot be seen from the outside, so he could also have made a a less laborious foundation to support the tower. 

But in an interview he said: A castle without a vault, that was not conceivable, which indicates that his creation was based on appreciation of building methods in earlier times.

The tower was completed in the summer of 2020.

When around 2023 the building will be completed in its entirety, Mercier intends to use it as a gite.

Now that it is clearly visible that this building is a castle, more interested visitors come along, most of whom show appreciation for the project. Regional newspapers and TV also showed their interest. 

Until now the castle has no name. The designation Castle dominating the upper Monne valley ¹ is fictitious and only indicates its location.

Documentation

* Article (September 2020) on the website of France 3, ed Puy-de-Dôme 

Video

* Video by France 3 TV Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (September 2020, YouTube, 2'22")

 

note

¹  The Monne is an approximately 35 km long river that has its source in the Puy-de-Dôme, near the \Col de la Croix-Morand, above the hamlet of Mareuge and flows into the Veyre river.

Laurent Mercier

Chateau

63710 Hameau de Mareuge, 

Le Vernet-Sainte-Marguerite, dept Puy-de-Dôme, region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

can be seen from the road

Twelfth anniversary of this blog

Bonjour aux promeneurs, Hello walkers

picture of a sculpture by Fernand Châtelain

courtesy of Marcello 13 (Flickr)

Today, November 11th 2020, this blog has existed for twelve years and it now includes reviews of some 500 art environments in Europe. As in previous years I will relate here data (as of November 10 and 11) about numbers/origin of visitors and about most viewed art environments.

Number of visitors

On November 10th, 2020 the all time number of visitors was 890.062. On November 10th, 2019 it was 819.622, so there is an increase of 70.440 visitors, or on the average 193 visitors a day. 

Over the period 2018-2019 the average was 175 visitors a day.

All time page views by country

As in previous years here is the all time rank of top ten countries as regards page-views (as on November 10):

  1. United States 295.000 (rank 2019 idem)

  2. Netherlands  86.900 (rank 2019 idem

  3. France 78.200 (rank 2019 idem)

  4. Germany 61.300 (rank 2019 idem)

  5. United Kingdom 59.700 (rank 2019 idem) 

  6. Italy 33.400 (rank 2019 was 7) 

  7. Russia 32.900 (rank 2019 was 6) 

  8. Ukraine 23.700 (rank 2019 idem) 

  9. Spain 16.300 (rank 2019 idem) 

10. Poland 6.240 (rank 2019 idem) 

The top ten list includes the same countries as in 2019, almost in the same order, except Italy and Russia which changed places. Italy is still on the rise: 9 in 2017, 8 in 2018, 7 in 2019, 6 in 2020.

Once more the interest from Ukraine and Poland in Eastern Europe and Russia is lasting.

Most viewed sites all time

 

These are the sites with the most all time views (as on November 10th):

  1.  Bill and Elisabeth Charge, UK, Shell garden, 6364    

  2.  Robert Garcet, Belgium, Tour Eben-Ezer, 5585     

  3.  Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, France, Palais Idéal, 5028

  4.  Jose Maria Garrido, Spain, Shell decorated interior, 4938

  5.  Robert Tatin, France, Singular architecture, 4579

  6.  Bodan Litnianski, France, Decorated garden, 4531

  7.  Chomo, France, Préludian art, 4160

  8.  Abbé Fouré, France, Sculpted rocks, 3760

  9.  Francisco Grajera, Spain, Decorated house, 3754

10.  Joseph Pujiula i Vila, Spain, Labyrinth, 3637

The first place for Bill and Elisabeth Charge has to do with a one time event. In October 2016 the husband of a granddaughter of Bill and Elisabeth posted a message on the Watford Memories and History page on Facebook, asking -with a link to the relevant post in this blog- if anyone remembered the sculpture garden, that was demolished by the housing company soon after Elisabeth had died.

Thousands of people did remember the site and this resulted in over 5000 hits of the post in a few days time, which meanwhile has grown to over 6300, a number that no other site has been able to surpass until now. 

For the rest, the top ten list continues to include the same names as those of previous years, compared to 2018 almost in the same order: Robert Garcet from Belgium. Facteur Cheval, Robert Tatin, Bodan Litnianski, Abbé Fouré and Chomo from France and José Maria Garrido, Francisco Grajera and Joseph Pujiula from Spain.

Russia and Eastern Europe

In the autumn of 2014 I began paying special attention to tracing art environments in Eastern Europe and in the European part of Russia (the area west of the Urals). In particular in Russia until now I found some 50 sites that so far mostly were unknown in the Western-European field of art environments.

Here is an overview of sites in Russia with an all time number of visitors above 1000:

1. Alexander Emelyanov, Architectures, sculptures, 2485

2. Alexander Ladogina, Singular decorated architecture, 2045

3. Sergey Kirillov, Decorated house, 1859

4. Yevgeny Malakhin (also known as Bukashkin), Paint the garbage, 1685

5. Petr Zhurilenko, Sculpture garden, 1672

6. Egor Utrobin, Sculpture garden, 1294

7. Collective of conscripts of Teykovo, Scattered sculptures, 1267

The art environments in Eastern European countries in general are already better known in Western Europe. Here is an overview of sites in the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine with an all time number of visitors above 1500:

1. Frantisek Rink, Czech Republic, Ossuary, 2697

2. Victor Levy, Czech Republic, Sculpted rocks, 2634

3. Bogdan Ziętek, Poland, Interior with sculptures, 2486

4. Stanislav Sartsevich, Ukraine, Sculpture garden, 2154

5. Nicholas Golovan, Ukraine, Decorated house, 2115

6. Felicija Curylova, Poland, Decorated house, 1772

7. Boguslav Iwanovskiego, Poland, Sculpture garden, 1712

Of course, above listings are just meant to give an idea of the focus of the visitors who visit this blog. 

Maurice Lellouche, Le petit musée / The small museum

 part of Lellouche's "Petit Musée" as in 1989

picture by Bruno Montpied, from his weblog

Champigny-sur-Marne, a municipality with around 78.000 inhabitants, is a suburb of Paris located south-east of the capital. In the 1970s/80s this community was home to an art environment, that now (2020) is in disrepair, with probably only a few remnants remaining.

The site was located at the Rue Diderot and its creator Marcel Lellouche (born in 1908), had designated it as Le Petit Musée (the small museum).

When in May 2018 Google Streetview drove past the Rue Diderot, this yielded below image of the entrance of the Petit Musée: a concrete wall with closed corrugated iron doors, located in the middle of urban high-rise buildings.

The concrete wall appears to be provided with a (difficult to recognize) decoration and with some effort the text Le petit musée can be distinguished

Behind the corrugated iron doors there is an elongated plot of land, divided into a courtyard at the front where meanwhile a large tree has sprouted and a rear part with a house where Lellouche lived. 

Life and works

Lellouche in his working life was a retailer in fruit and vegetables. 

He probably used the elongated plot of land as a space for the storage of his merchandise and as a place to park his van and other utensils that he needed to carry out his trade as a retailer and market merchant.

this picture and the next five courtesy of ©️Francis David;

from the website Habitants Paysagistes (Lille Art Museum)

Retired in 1970, when he was in his early sixties, Lellouche began transforming the site into an art environment. 

This art environment can broadly be characterized by three elements: 

- a variety of mosaics from small stones attached to the walls,

- freestanding, mostly mosaic structures and  

- a number of texts added to the walls.

The picture above shows Lellouche in front of some of his wall decorations, such as flowers in vases and a sailing ship, these combined with some fragments of texts. 

The site included a number of comparable wall decorations, such as depictions of a soldier and various African characters.

Another wall decoration can be seen on the right of above picture, where the blue, white and red of the French flag is depicted in combination with an inscription reading Dieu protège la France (God protects France).

The left part of the image shows an arch of honor constructed by Lellouche, presumably in honor of the lady whose name, Marie-Genevieve, is on the arch but about whom no further information is available.

On top of the arch there are four letters that together form the sign მ  I მ  I . It's not clear what this means. One could interpret this as DIDI, but then again it is not clear to whom this refers

It is also tempting to interpret the combination of letters as GIGI, since elsewhere in this art environment an inscription to a a circular wall has this word. As shown in the picture above, the inscription says Heureux anniversaire à notre chére roman Gigi Les Bêtes (Happy birthday to our dear novel Gigi Les Bêtes). 

Gigi is a famous book (1944) by French author Colette (1873-1954), a book that was not only adapted into a play, but also into two films and a musical. She also wrote two books with Bêtes in the title.

On the wall depicted in above picture, the name Claudie has been added. It's unclear to whom this refers. 

However, there is more clarity about the ship that is also depicted. This must be a replica of the SS France, with its 316 meter the longest ship in the world at its time, built on a yard in Saint-Nazaire and put into service in February 1962.

This replica is one of the freestanding creations of this art environment.

Another freestanding mosaic creation is the large owl, as in above picture.

Other freestanding items that decorated the site included a some three meter high replica of a windmill and a horse pulling a hearse.

To conclude this overview of the creations in Lellouche's art environment, let's quote some of the texts he added to the walls. 

There is a text that reads On est pas des pneus, mais il faut que l'on crève quand même (We are not tires, but we have to die anyway).  

Another one,  partially visible in the picture with Lellouche standing in front of a sailing ship, says "Quinou" Je les offre á Maman et a ma chère mémé  ("Quinou" I offer these  to Mom and to my dear Grandma)

And finally, depicted in the picture above, there is a quote at the top of an otherwise empty piece of wall rising above a planter with green plants, which says: Ici le decor est beau, mais l'ennui est grand  (The decor here is beautiful, but the boredom is great). 

It's a sigh that may say something about Lellouche's state of mind. He was a tormented person indeed, and when receiving visitors he could sometimes confuse them.

Lellouche continued to work on the decorations until around 1989, when he was in his early 80s. 

It is not known when he died.

The site has been almost completely lost

Nowadays hardly anything has remained of this art environment. The free-standing structures have disappeared, just as the arch with the inscription Marie-Genevieve. There are just some remnants of the bas-reliefs and the inscriptions on the wall, although very damaged,

Documentation

* The site has a review in Bruno Montpied's extensive inventory of French art environments Le gazouillis des éléphants, Paris (Ed. du Sandre), 2017. -926 p

* Short review and a series of photos by Francis  David on the website Habitants-Paysagistes (Lille Art Museum)

* Article by Sonia Terhzaz, reporting the visits she paid to the site in 2014 and 2022, on her website Cartographie des Rocamberlus  (2023), with photos of remaining creations

first published November 2020, last revised April 2023

Maurice Lellouche

Le petit musée

63 rue Diderot 

Champigny-sur-Marne, dept Val-de-Marne, region Île-de-France, France

the site is in decay, no visits