Musée des Mille et Une Racines, Nature art museum in Cornimont, France
The museum is an art space housed in a former textile factory that displays around 1,000 wood sculptures crafted from roots, branches, and tree trunks gathered from nearby forests. The works fill roughly 480 square meters and take the form of figures and creatures shaped from the collected natural materials.
Michel Maurice, an artist born in 1937, spent more than five decades walking through local forests to collect roots and branches that he transformed into sculptures. He eventually opened this museum in the former factory building to share his lifetime of artistic work.
The wood sculptures on display depict human figures and animals drawn from the forest, each one shaped by the artist to highlight what the wood already suggested. Forest sounds recorded by audio naturalist Marc Namblard play throughout the rooms, connecting the art to its natural origins.
The museum is located near the forest and is easily reached on foot from the town center. It is helpful to wear comfortable shoes since the exhibition is spread across multiple levels and spaces throughout the building.
Some of the sculptures contain found objects embedded within the wooden structures to tell fairy tale stories and legends. This combination of natural wood forms with incorporated items creates unexpected narratives throughout the collection.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
