A "Barbapapa house"

The moment I read this, I hear the song of the Barbapapa family; Barbapapapa….  Summer holidays. Driving through Europe with the kids in the back of the car, listening to tapes of Barbapapa, Pippi, the bear Colargol…. Just one rather big tape recorder and they didn’t have the earphones yet. So coming home we could dream a wide repertoire of children stories and songs.

But this is a real serious “Barbapapa house” designed by Atelier Van Lieshout (Zie ook NRC cultuurblog van 2011/01/05). The building looks like a big terracotta bloc with something (also terracotta) crawling around it. Off course I think straight away of the buildings of Hundertwasser and a bit later of the buildings of Gaudi.

From whatever time ago I saw the first pictures of the works of Hundertwasser and Gaudi I was in love with these multicolor structures. Although, Gaudi has also done some pretty “depressing gray” stuff. The Hundertwasser museum in Vienna (Kunsthaus Wien) is a feast of color and fantasy. Two floors of full of pictures in a flowing building. Some years ago in Rotterdam in the “Kunsthal”, there was an exhibition of his models of towns and houses. 

This Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) certainly makes intriguing art projects. (try the link). It probably did also this man walking in the Hofvijver in The Hague in the summer of 2004.

And what about the monkey like hands coming out of the water in the same year? Is it also from this AVL? I was searching the web, but nothing about this.  And if they are not made by AVL, then who did it? I really would like to know……..