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Abode of Chaos has been the subject of more than 900 press and media articles in 93 countries. According to the New York Times it is one of the most important and most emotional artistic adventures of the 21st century. Turn a corner of this middle-class village in the heart of the Monts d'Or, a wealthy suburb of Lyons, and golden masonry and bourgeois houses give way to this alchemical abode, inspired by Fulcanelli. When a museum became a factory In 1999, sculptor Thierry Ehrmann, founder of the Serveur Group and of Artprice, dedicated himself to creating a museum, known as L'Organe (the Organ). He very rapidly recognized that his project was becoming an institution. Should he recruit a curator, what form should the collection take? All details far removed from his original conception of life. The point was the convergence between desire and action. If he had to choose a model, it would not be that of a foundation but the way Andy Warhol envisaged art: the Factory. A fluid space as created by the Pop artist, where creativity lived from one day to the next in a random sensuality, to the beat of pure energy. Thierry Ehrmann invited artists to work with him in situ, creating connections between one endeavor and another, between countries and cultures. This perpetual activity which would finally be attuned to the perpetual movement of the world and its events. Where chaos is an option It was in this crucible that he was to mix one part exhibition, one part artwork and one part action to create a melting pot of crossbred energies. The project took on a life of its own. The original author became irrelevant, the idea was all. The question of a space dedicated only to art no longer mattered. Art was everywhere, gradually infiltrating the corpus of the space. First Thierry Ehrmann painted a salamander, followed by a battalion. As with living beings, they were everywhere. The artist Ben also became involved. Around a hundred artists continued the work. The Abode of Chaos became porous to the world, events flowing through it and imbuing it with meaning. Does that mean it resembled chaos? Although it burned, turning a post-apocalyptic, carbonized black, it retained its core architecture, wearing the scars of its deconstruction like medals. In truth, the house as a whole become a museum. To others eyes it exhibits what more formal spaces do not: it shows art as a living being, part of our everyday lives. Open-air art, 2,700 works, reflecting our tragic or magnificent century as seen by the artist. Hauviette Bethemont
France is affectionately referred to as "the Hexagon" for its overall shape.French history goes back to the Gauls, a Celtic tribe which inhabited the area circa 300BC until being conquered by Julius Caesar.The Franks were the first tribe to adopt Catholic Christianity after the Roman Empire collapsed. France became an independent location in the Treaty of Verdun in (843 AD), which divided up Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire into several portions.The French monarchy reached its zenith during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who stood for seventy-two years as the Monarch of all Monarchs. His palace of Versailles and its Hall of Mirrors are a splendid treasure-trove of Baroque art.The French Revolution ended the rule of the monarchy with the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!" On July 14th, 1789 angry mobs stormed La Bastille prison and began the Revolution in which Louis XVI, his wife Marie-Antoinette and thousands of others met the guillotine.One decade after the revolution, Napolean Bonaparte seized control of the Republic and named himself Emperor. His armies conquered most of Europe and his Napoleonic Code became a lasting legal foundation for concepts of personal status and property.During the period of colonization France controlled the largest empire in the world, second only to Britain.France is one of the founding members of the European Union and the United Nations, as well as one of the nuclear armed nations of the world.Text by Steve Smith.