From time to time we have wondered, just where does Chaos abide? As it turns out he abides in France. In Lyon. Saint-Romain to be exact. Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or to be pinpointedly exact. On the Rue de la République to be exhaustively boorish about it.

THIERRY EHRMANN, THE NEIGHBOR FROM HELL

May 2005 (materiaprima/artpress) - The first time I went to the Domaine de la Source, that historic building looked rather different from what we see today. When Thierry Ehrmann bought it with a view to making it both his home and company headquarters, it was a bourgeois manor of some 100,000 square feet, built in the famous golden stone of the Monts d’Or and standing in the privacy of a walled park. But since 2001 this Domaine de la Source has gradually become the Home of Chaos and the walls no longer hide a thing -- on the contrary. The scene today is one of desolation, worthy of John Carpenter’s New York 1999. Apocalyptic. On the parking lot a score of charred autos look like wreckage from inner city riots or a terrorist attack. All around, huge meteorites have dug craters while further on a plane has crashed into the garden. But the most spectacular part of all is no doubt the miniature replica of the ruined World Trade Center, a ten-meter sculpture made with 18 tons of steel and 90 tons of concrete. Nearby, Ehrmann plans a Berlin Wall that will be transformed into the barrier being put up by Israel in the West Bank.

IT'S ART
Uh, All That Junk Behind The Demolition Notice

FRENCH MAN FINED FOR DAMAGING HIS HOME FOR ART

LYON September 13, 2006 (Reuters) - A French court fined a businessman fined 200,000 euros (135,300 pounds)* on Wednesday for defacing his 18th century home in a quiet suburb of Lyon in order to turn it into a work of art called "The Abode of Chaos".

Thierry Ehrmann, who made a fortune from an online art data business [artprice.com], has spent 2.5 million euros (1.7 million pounds) on the project since starting out in 1999. His property is littered with 2,500 works of art including a crashed helicopter in the courtyard, wrecked cars and has a reproduction of an oil platform on the roof.

Ehrmann said the point of art was to ask questions.

"We are in a period of questioning," he said on TF1 television.

Well someone provoked to questioning is M. le Maire, Pierre Dumont:

"It's humanly intolerable, ugly, dramatic, with its images of destruction," he said. "Whatever you think, for me it's not art, it's a provocation. ... It's something that brings nothing to humanity; it's completely harebrained," he said in his cramped office, under a copy of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. "I paint myself — I have a certain sensibility. But I cannot understand what someone means by an airplane crash, an oil platform."

SHRINE TO 'CHAOS' SAFE FROM DEMOLITION CAMPAIGN

LYON September 13, 2006 (AFP) - A shrine to "chaos" — built by an eccentric millionnaire in the heart of a picturesque French village — won the right to remain standing on Wednesday despite a local bid to have it torn down.

A precious artwork for some — the culture ministry is considering making the 'Demeure du Chaos', or 'Abode of Chaos' a listed monument — others see it as an unwelcome eyesore. The mayor of Saint-Romain took legal action in 2004 to have it ripped down for violating local planning rules.

On Wednesday, however, an appeal court in Lyon ruled that the building in its current form was a work of art and could remain standing — though it fined Ehrmann EUR 200,000 euros for breach of planning regulations.

Despite the heavy fine, Ehrmann...said he was delighted.

"The judges have confirmed that this is unquestionably a work of art, and have clearly shown their will to protect a unique and singular creation," he told AFP by telephone.

When the courts must be recruited to pronounce on a thing's aesthetic content, gentle skimmer, we suspect the thing in question has more legal than art content .

The mayor, Pierre Dumont, said after the hearing he planned to take his case to France's highest court of appeal. "Why should the law apply to some and not to others?"

Oh, M. le Maire, why indeed.

* Consider for a moment that prize brag of French casuistry: proportion. M. Ehrmann is registered with France’s Maison des Artistes where his art scheme was deposited before he commenced, establishing its claim as art. He has been fined €200,000 for crimes of omission, failing to obtain permits for the Abode.

Who, we ask, has more violated the public weal? Who has committed the greater crimes?

PFFT (What is this?): Legal art 4 | Eyesore 4 | Rayonnement français 0