What lives in your wildest imagination? Go on, dive in, let your secret world swish and swash around you. Glorious isn’t it? And while you’re at it, why not build a house in the middle of it all and live there forever more?
Well, if you want to know just how that might pan out, look no further than Bruno Weber’s magical sculpture park in Switzerland. Bringing his own fantastical universe to life, Weber created a visionary counterword to our urban concrete deserts.
This wonderous land, home to monumental mythical creatures – and Bruno himself until his death in 2011 – was 40 years in the making. 20,000 square metres of forest, lakes, meadows, giant concrete serpents, unicorns and vertiginous deers with lights for antlers… It’s the closest any of us will ever get to wandering through the subconsious of this marvellously off-piste mind.
In true outsider style, Weber took absolutely no notice of planning or building regs and continued to sculpt and build as he pleased. But as visitors flocked, the council eventually gave in and let him off. He even received a grant worth millions to create a water garden!
But alas, rumours have reached Woo Woo during the writing of this piece that the powers that be have threatened closure. Petitions have been signed and miracles are now awaited… As for Bruno himself? Well, wherever he is in the universe, he’s probably busy building a whole new magical world for himself. What a dude.∎
