Huygen (Jean-Marc)

The following text, published in July 2009, is a powerful plea to save the creation of Bodan Litnianski. It was originally published in french (here), and I publish this translation into english with the friendly approval of its author.

Jean-Marc Huygen is an architect who lives in Liège (Belgium) and teaches architecture in Marseille (France).

Jean-Marc Huygen,

Heritage of humanity: for what reason should we save a site of 200 m2 in Viry-Noureuil in the Aisne?

The Jardin des merveilles de Bodan Litnianski (note 1) or Maison au coquillages (Garden of Wonders, or Shell House) is much more than a garden as such, or a work of art brut. It is about a whole ecosystem, that demonstrates that human beings can live with an ecological footprint that is sustainable for the future of the planet.

-From a very small territory - a banal plot of land- its author was able to make a place of living, where human activities (the various annexes to the original house), production of food (the garden of vegetables) and spiritual satisfaction (the "beautiful" or the completion with feeling) compactly are grouped together.

- In addition, the materials that are used – re-employment (note 2) of the 'waste' of society - make it a labyrinthic stomach: both a recycler of material and a conservatory of memories, in this case of objects manufactured in the second half of the twentieth century.

- Finally, the assembly of these objects (technics) and their chaotic composition (aesthetics) (note 3), very studied and mature, lead to such a three-dimensional structure that our body and our mind are continuously titillated when walking through.

These three qualities, viz the tendency to self-sufficiency (or the development of a world in the world), the ability to re-employ obsolete objects and the awareness of the non-obligatory act as a means of elevation of the mind, are fundamental qualities of the architecture of the twenty-first century.

Sustainability, the paradigm of our time, is indeed based on the three pillars identified by the Brundtland Report in 1987 (joint treatment of environmental, economic and social data) as well as the fourth pillar, i.e. the cultural dimension (note 4)

Although it is widely accepted that the contemporary architectural approach must address this need for living together and live-in-diversity on a planet with limited resources, how to get there is still debated: the objective is clear, but the means to achieve it are not. The main reason is the scarcity of concrete examples that can serve as a reference; in this regard the site created by Bodan Litnianski is one.

The concept of World Heritage adopted by UNESCO in 1972, which aims to protect certain natural or cultural sites as a common heritage of humanity, has the advantage that we can draw from the legacy of the past to pass it on to future generations .The ten objective criteria, selected in 2005 , to define the World Heritage List, with regard to cultural sites (ie made by man), are based on the notion of testimony or outstanding example of human construction having universal significance .

The site of 200 m2 made by Litnianski can be compared with some other, similar sites in the world: for example, the Palais Ideal by Ferdinand Cheval in Hauterives or the Watts Towers by Simon Rodia in Los Angeles.

In all these cases, it is about long term achievements, constructed in a self-taught way by a man on his own, using costless materials that were gleaned in the neighborhood, what would result in making something beautiful with an unknown purpose, if it were not just building a "cathedral". In all cases, the constructor is an exile, a person who demonstrates that even if he is on himself and comes from elsewhere, he can make a great thing here, from waste of those from here (note 5).

In all these cases, he (re-) built with hard materials, but did integrate nature in it: birds and water surfaces by Rodia, the "Temple of Nature" by Cheval, the garden of vegetables by Litnianski. Naive art, art brut or art indiscipliné, pre-scientific architecture, no matter: in all cases, the work in progress inspires mistrust, then, after the death of the author, it is incorporated in the heritage of the community.

It is urgent to preserve this site. The entire site, to be sure, not only the garden as such, with its columns and arches, walls and flooring, but also the house and its various annexes and finally the items showing the way of life (the garden of vegetables, the design of the interior with the furniture, the supplies of materials, the crazy objects sometimes representing caged birds, sometimes airplanes that could be weather vanes, or not, etc..). The whole can serve as an example or become a source of inspiration how to live differently nowadays.

Since the grandchildren are ready to sell, the best solution would be if the state, the region or the department acquired it..They alone are able to ensure continuity: promoting research programs, keeping it safe on the long run, open it for the public to visit. Decisions must be made urgently, both to avoid vandalism or disappearance of certain parts, and to assure the preservation (e.g. the plastic objects tend to deteriorate under the influence of ultraviolet rays). And this public investment will give rise to an additional cultural and economic development in the largely agricultural region of Viry-Noureuil

(added to OEE-texts February 2010)

Notes

1 Title of a monograph published in 2004 by Éditions Vivement Dimanche, with a preface by Agnès Varda, a text by Denys Riout and photographs by Benjamin Teissèdre, Laurent Jacquy and Mariel Louis. Moreover, the House of Shells, as it is called in the village, got its name in the first phase of the project, when the exterior walls were decorated with shells of oysters, mussels and shells Saint-Jacques

2 Re-employment is more than re-use, recovery or recycling. The term induces values of economic use of energy and conservation of heritage. Le réemploi est plus que réutilisation, récupération ou recyclage, il induit des valeurs d’économie d’énergie et de conservation du patrimoine. See Jean-Marc Huygen, La poubelle et l’architecte – Vers le réemploi des matériaux, Actes Sud, coll. L’Impensé, Arles, 2008.

.3 Chaos is not disorder, it is a complex and dynamic system where each object has its place, but retains its autonomy.

4 See for example Alberto Magnaghi, Le projet local, Mardaga, coll. Architecture + Recherches n° 44, Sprimont, 2003 (2000), as well as Ezio Manzini, Artefacts – Vers une écologie de l’environnement artificiel, Éditions du Centre Pompidou, coll. Les essais, Paris, 1991 (1990).

5 Bodan Litnianski (1913-2005) came from Ukraine between the wars, joining his brother. He worked as a mason in Saint-Quentin, a mason-artist as Agnès Varda said.