A man who knows how to do everything!
Born in 1920 in Villalier in Aude, Louis Fonta moved with his parents to Arc-et-Senans in the mid-1920s. He started an apprenticeship as a mechanic at the age of 13.
When World War II broke out, he joined the army. He refuses the capitulation of France in June 1940 and thinks of joining London and General De Gaulle. Retained by his wife Henriette, he will still join the Resistance. This episode of the war had a profound effect on Louis Fonta.
At the end of the war, he exercised many trades, from mechanic to work in the fields. In the 70s, Louis Fonta joined the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans as a locksmith.
A growing passion
It was on entering Les Salines that Louis Fonta discovered the art of the model, first by order of his employer, then as a hobby. Over the years, he will make more than 400 models. They represent scenes from everyday life, old trades or childhood memories.
– Comtois Museum, Besançon
For Louis Fonta, it is a form of transmission, of testimony to a changing world. He does not seek exactness or extreme fidelity, and breathes great poetry into his work.
To make his models, Louis Fonta set up a workshop next to his house, a kind of large bric-a-brac. He spends a large part of his free time there, and works on several models at the same time.
A raw, popular and naive art
To create his works, Louis Fonta uses almost exclusively salvaged materials. Pieces of metal, wood, and various objects, the uses of which he enjoys diverting, even the paint is salvaged!
Louis Fonta does not work for him, and wants his work to be shared. He will donate a large number of works to various museums in the region. So in 2003, aged 83, he approaches the Comtois Museum, and donates 140 models. He died in 2009, at the age of 88.
New models are discovered in the berms of the Royal Saline during work, and after getting closer to the family, the Comtois Museum acquires 63 new models.