Sculptures at Jardin d'Art Brut Fernand Châtelain
Sculpture at the Jardin d'Art Brut Fernand Châtelain
Sculpture at the Jardin d'Art Brut Fernand Châtelain
Villa Parmentier in PiacéIf you’ve ever been on the Route Départementale 338 between Le Mans and Alençon, you won’t have missed this strange garden with its colorful, humorous sculptures just outside the village of Fyé!
Over 40 of Fernand Chatelain’s works are on display here, created over the course of his life. This self-taught artist used whatever he could find to make his famous sculptures: iron, wire mesh, newspapers, all covered in cement and, above all, color.
To walk through this garden is to share in the artist’s life: his travels, his encounters, his “loves”… animals, both familiar and imaginary, political figures and emblematic places will all rub shoulders.
Fernand Chatelain’s unusual environment has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the finest examples of art brut in France.
As you’ve driven through Piacé, you’ve no doubt been taken aback by a few unusual objects. The question that inevitably springs to mind is “why?”. Well, because two brothers, Nicolas and Benoît Hérisson, whose family hails from Piacé and who have a passion for art, discovered that the great Le Corbusier had passed through this small village in the Sarthe department and had even designed a “village radieux” there.
Indeed, while Le Corbusier and others were rethinking cities, the countryside was feeling even more isolated. One man, Norbert Bézard, from Piacé, dared to “go up” to Paris and call on Le Corbusier to defend the modernization of the countryside. That’s how the idea of the “ferme radieuse et village coopératif”(radiant farm and cooperative village) was born. Even if the project never saw the light of day, the two men got on well together. Today, the site of Piacé le Radieux, created by the Hérisson brothers, has many facets: museum, gallery, art center… all you have to do is come and discover it!
