La Demeure du Chaos / Abode of Chaos

Sunday September 17th 2006, 3:11 am
Filed under: politics, news, photos, events, people, stories, art/culture/design
abode of chaos

For several months now, we’ve been following, with fascination, the story and news about La Demeure du Chaos (Abode of Chaos). I’ve been calling it The Chaos House.

Located in a small village called Saint-Romain-au-mont-d’or, France, just north outside of the the city of Lyon, The Abode of Chaos is a collective and complex art piece by Thierry Ehrmann and a group of international artists. This “residence” is made up of 2,500 works that cost Mr. Ehrmann approximately 5 million dollars, which was spent (over a period of 7 years) to transform the 17th century stone house into what is now La Demeure du Chaos / The Abode of Chaos. There are giant black and white paintings of the faces: Osama Bin Laden, George Bush, Ariel Sharon and others (Mr. Ehrmann notes that Terrorism has many faces); the garden keeps large sculptures: a model of the remains of the World Trade Center, crashed helicoptors, a pool filled with blood, an oil platform sits on top of the roof. It expresses many bold statements related to the state of the world, humanity, war, politics, religions, hatred, terrorism. It is a collective set of opinions. It is artistic expression.

Since it’s such a striking piece of artwork due to its content, which also extends to the outside of the walls of the Abode, it creates a striking contrast with the rest of the village.

The drama that surrounds it is also part of the work, much like performance art with everyone contributing as participants. The work has been a topic of much controversy, particularly from the village’s mayor, Pierre Dumont. He finds such a work ugly and intolerable, and does not consider it art at all, so he decided to take Mr. Ehrmann to court to try to have the Abode dismantled. Last June, the court ruled in favor of the village’s mayor, and ordered Mr. Ehrmann to pay a fine and to restore the house to its original state. Mr. Ehrmann made an appeal (this included a petition of 54,090 signatures worldwide by people in support of the Abode), and the final verdict was announced just a few days ago. This time, the court fined Mr. Ehrmann 200,000 euros ($253,360) for property violations but ruled that the residence would be allowed to exist in its current state. In fact, the Abode was declared a unique, artistic work of the 21st century by the Court of Appeals.

As part of the Journées européennes du patrimoine / European Days of Pride (September 16 and 17), The Abode of Chaos is opening its doors to the public today from 3pm to 7pm.

La Demeure du Chaos (Musée l’Organe)
69270 Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or FRANCE
Website: La Demeure du chaos / Abode of Chaos
Email: contact@demeureduchaos.org
Photo Galleries: Photos of the Abode of Chaos (this set contains photos of all of the works since 1999)

copyright ©2006 Why travel to France