Cadet (Alain), Arthur Vanabelle who reinvented the Maginot Line and unknowingly makes art brut (2010)

Free lance journalist Alain Cadet, who lives in the north of France, in september 2010 visited and interviewed Arthur Vanabelle, who created La Ferme aux Avions.

With his permission, this text is republished here. It's interesting, because Vanabelle talks about his life and works.

Alain Cadet,

Arthur Vanabelle who reinvented the Maginot Line and unknowingly makes art brut

Travelling from Lille to Dunkirk by the highway, one will suddenly see, on the right, a strange farm. It is overtaken by combat aircrafts, that even have suspended the roofs and it is defended by colorful and menacing tanks . If you want to go there, you should do your very best..

You have to pass and pass again over the highway, following a narrow and muddy road, that reluctantly just tolerates one car.

At a dead end, blocked by the highway, one reaches the end of the world.

This is the point 50 °41' 55.44 " north and 2 °48' 26.99" east, which defines Ménégate, an old bunker of the Maginot Line.

Here we are at the heart of the domain of Arthur Vanabelle, the undisputed master of the site named the Ménégate Farm. Then, accompanied by his two dogs, Arthur appears and we see immediately that he is not just anyone.

"I was born in 1922. So now I am 88. I'm almost, apart from a few days, of the same age as Liliane Bettencourt. I know this, her date of birth was on TV! But I am much fitter than she is! (Laughs). One can say, being old, it's going ... as far as it is has to do with the head ... because my knees ...

I went to school in Steenwerck. At twelve and a half years, I got my certificate …...easily.!

After this, I became a farmer and I did this job all my life.

I never did my military service. In 1940, I was too young (the class of 22 has never been enlisted). In 1945, I was too old! Yet I have seen war: the English troops, retreating to Dunkirk, the debacle and the German troops who came next. There was no need to look far away: everyone passed along the farm!

I continued my quite life as a farmer. I was all day in the field. It was not like nowadays, when we hardly see anybody working on the land! I worked with a horse… I had a number of them. A few years after the war, I bought a tractor, an overall orange Renault

In the years following 1945, one could find all kinds of different objects in the fields, along the roads and elsewhere. I made a bunch of these, that has become increasingly bigger. In the sixties, I started to weld it all and make planes, tanks and cannons. Do not ask me why! I do not know! I did it: that's it!

I have assembled and imagined everything as good as on my own! Although my brother helped me. He handed me the pieces when I was up there, on the ladder, ready to fix them together. That is very important (laughs)

There are plenty of people interested in my work! Journalists come from everywhere! Even Japanese television has come along (Laughs)

Recently, I got a letter from the museum. They want me to go meet them. It seems that I'm doing art, "art brut ", as they say. I do not know if I will go, because of my knees that hurt me. And then I'm very fine here! "

added to OEE-texts sept 2010

Interview by Alain Cadet on Friday, September 17, 2010