I finally saw the crazy people art museum today, also known as the Musee de l'Arte Brut. Some of the stuff was pretty damn amazing... some of the stuff could have easily been in the Tate Modern or the Pompidou -- in the end, I guess, all artists are at least a little crazy.
One guy carved these intricate designs into the wall of his room while he was in solitary confinement. He used the broken end of a spoon. Then there was a woman who went crazy after her kid died and stayed up all hours of the night using a pen to draw on this massive piece of fabric. She covered the entire area (I estimated about 40 or 50 feet long and 10 feet tall) with women's faces mixed in with this architectural design.
One man created these wooden carvings that looked like little rooms or buildings, and he liked movement so he gave them all moving pieces, like windows or doors that open to little wooden people standing inside. Seemed like an interactive exhibit to me. It wasn't. And I got yelled at in French.
If I hadn't already been reprimanded I most certainly would have played with another wooden exhibit -- these Erica-sized Eiffel-Tower-like structures with moving parts that allegedly make all different sounds when you touch them. The artist was blind and he used the sounds made from the moving parts to figure out when he was done. I really wanted to play... but I was too scared o' the little old lady.
Other artwork looked like it was done by little kids who had just discovered crayons. One woman used toothpaste. One dude thought spirits created his art through his hands and that he wasn't personally responsible for it. But he was also the only one I noticed made a concerted effort to sign each picture neatly at the bottom right-hand corner.
So that was that. I also went to a cathedral and the Olympic Museum, but the cathedral was a cathedral and the Olympic Museum was nothing particularly exciting. Although I did get a photo of the spikes Lasse Viren wore in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. But Brian's the only one who will appreciate that.
Tomorrow I'm going hiking in the Swiss Alps, and the next day I'll make a four- or five-hour stop in Zurich before heading to Munich.
3 comments:
"All are artists are at least a little crazy,"...Oh yes. Yes they are indeed. ~BLW
I am currently on a French computer, and I find it amusing that instead of saying "fatty, a visitor" or whatever it says on computers in the U.S. on the line above a comment that identifies the person, it says "fatty a dit." I like that, and have recently decided that should be your new name. Fatty a dit. I like it better every time.
Ohhh, it's supposed to be "fatty says." Apparently the French version of 'says' is 'a dit.' I like it.
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