Roland Mousquès, Créations de pierres empilées / Creations of stacked stones

this image, probably made by Roland Mousqués, as published
on Facebook

Vialas is a municipality with currently some 500 inhabitants, located in the Cevennes area in the Lozère department in southern France. 

Unlike in earlier timess, most municipalities in the Cevennes area no longer have a declining population. Also in Vialas, the number of inhabitants, permanent residents and owners of a single-family home, is fairly stable.

A special feature of Vialas, seen from the perspective of this weblog, is that walls along the public road have been decorated with creations as those depicted in the surrounding images.

this image and the next four, in all probabilty made by 

Roland Mousques,as published on Facebook by Mimi San

Life and works

These decorations were made by Roland Mousquès (1940-2018), who was born and grew up in Paris. 

In May 1968, during the student revolt, he fled Paris and went to live in the Cévennes, initially in a hippie community in Polimies, but soon he found his own home in a former farmhouse in Figuerolles, a hamlet in the Vialas region.

Once settled in Figuerolles, he began a career as a mason. He found work restoring old farmhouses, and, interested as he was in old traditions and heritage, he treated them with care. 

Practicing this profession, he also became involved in the restoration of the old Bonijol mill in Figuerolles.

Around 1970 he also began to engage himself in the sphere of artistic activities.

He had a passion for a very specific form of art, namaley stacking stones in such a way that an artistic creation emerged.

The artworks formed by stacked stones, resulting in walls with, for example, undulating granite snakes, all kinds of heads, rising pillars, as seen in the images around, attracted the attention of passers-by and motorists.

Mousques is not only one of several French specialists in drywall-construction, he is also one of the founders of the Association ABPS (Association des Bâtisseurs en Pierre Sèche), France's drywall association, founded in the early 2000s.

Drywall construction is a technique for stacking irregular stones without using any binding agent, such as cement.

The revival of this approach in the Cévennes in the 1970s and 1980s, was a significant contribution to preserving and beautifying the landscape.

Roland Mousqués passed away on November 14, 2018.

Documentations

* Website of the association ABPS

* Article (2013) about Roland Mesquès on the website Stine-Ideas, with a series of images

* Article (2018) at the occasion of the death of Roland Mesquès

Other French sites with tacked stones in this weblog

* Michel Rousseau, The lost stone garden

* René Morice, Alignments of stone strctures

* Auguste Bourgoin, Public ruins end of the century

Roland Mousques

Creations of stacked stones

Figueirolles, 48220 Vialas, dept Lozère, region Occitanie, France.

creations can be seen from the road