It consists of its own house and three architectural sculptures: the Refuge, the Church of the Poor, and the Sanctuary of the Burnt Woods.
The Association des Amis de Chomo has been safeguarding the site since 2015, and invites you to discover this exceptional place during one-off visits and events, also open to the public every 3rd weekend of the month from April to October, as well as the 3rd week of July 2024, with the possibility of purchasing your tickets online by clicking on the "Book" tab.


Born on January 28, 1907 in Berlaimont (Nord), and died on June 19, 1999 in Achères-la-Forêt (Seine-et-Marne), Roger Chomeaux, known as Chomo, is one of those unclassifiable artists who, in France, were left by the wayside during the great turn taken by international contemporary art in the 1950s-1960s. Born into a modest family, he attended painting and sculpture classes at the Écoles Académiques in Valenciennes, then went on to do brilliantly at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he won several prizes. Like Picasso, Paul Klee or Dubuffet, Roger Chomeaux had an excellent academic training to start with.
academic training.
Married with four children, he was hired as an "artist-decorator", designing canvases for Delarive, while his wife ran a small wool business out of her home. A rather comfortable situation, brutally interrupted by the war.
Returning from a year's captivity in Poland, he approached galleries in vain and developed his art, both in Paris and in Achères-la-Forêt, in the forest of Fontainebleau, where his wife had bought a small plot of land in his absence.
There, as a "beekeeper", he discovered the Bois Brûlé and, after a single exhibition in Paris, Galerie Jean Camion, rue des Beaux-arts, in May 1960, he decided not to return to the city and to devote himself solely to creation, working at various odd jobs to survive.
Until his death, forty years later, he lived as a hermit in the forest, creating his Village d'Art Préludien (Preludian Art Village) in the most destitute solitude: the Église des Pauvres (Church of the Poor), the Sanctuaire des Bois Brûlés (Burnt Wood Sanctuary) and the Refuge (Refuge) are buildings made of plaster, wire mesh, bottles and dead wood, designed to house his works. These architecture-sculptures were the subject of numerous reports in the 1970s and 1980s. Chomo's world became internationally renowned and legendary among lovers of outsider art and singular environments. Claiming to be inspired by the Invisible and determined to "dethrone bronze" by making use of every scrap material at his disposal, Chomo would ritually receive visitors and invite them to "have a dream with Chomo". On an old tape recorder, found in the rubbish, he performed various musical experiments and also recorded a large number of poems, written in a phonetic alphabet of his own invention.

Today, the Association des Amis de Chomo is the custodian of Chomo's work and memory, and welcomes you to discover the Village d'art préludien: the site visit includes the three architectural sculptures created by the artist and immersed in the Fontainebleau forest, a short video and explanatory panels.