A visit to the “Maison Totale” is like “walking through a washing machine”
Published: Tuesday, Jul 2nd 2024, 10:30
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The "Maison Totale" near Neuchâtel is a total work of art by the Jura artist Augustin Rebetez - crazy and imaginative. The house with immersive art and a sculpture garden invite you to visit on summer weekends.
Augustin Rebetez has transformed his estate on the southern slope of the Jura near Neuchâtel into a total work of art, with a museum inside the house and a sculpture garden. A "crazy thing", as he himself told the Keystone-SDA news agency.
He has combined everything that defines him as an artist there: Painting, video, sculpture and music. The project oscillates between Niki de Saint-Phalle's tarot garden and a ghost train. And, no, it is not an exhibition, but rather something that is intended to last a lifetime.
After four years of work, his house for dreaming now stands a stone's throw from Bôle station, between fields and woods. Rebetez explains that his aim is "to transmit positive energy, life, art. As if people go through a washing machine and come out refreshed and regenerated".
And almost a little grimly, he adds: "Coming here means feeling something. It's good to be a bit scared, for example." And so scary images pass by in a corner of the house; the images are generated by artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, you can laugh at a video that seems to be an allusion to the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Or marvel at a face made of neon tubes and the fantasy creatures in the garden.
Rebetez didn't just want to build a beautiful house: "I believe in art, in the power of art, in the power of original places, in places where life, creativity and the public mingle. It also makes sense for such a house to be built in this region, far away from the centers."
The "Maison Totale" can be experienced until September 21, on Saturdays and Sundays.
maisontotale.ch
©Keystone/SDA
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