Mühle House and the Mühle Family
I always felt that in life, the things that are the most beautiful and the most sincere, also have the greatest force and the best chance to endure and survive the test of time. And that is because they all emanate a certain energy that attracts us to them involuntary, and before we know it, we find ourselves gravitating around them. Even when these things happen to be shaky, frail or degraded, they always remain strong, because they represent more than just the mere image of an object. They represent a very special mixture of stories, symbols and a ton of emotions, that create that certain energy that attracts us.
And it's always the most wounded of those beautiful things, that happen to hide the best and most overwhelming stories of all. In fact, whenever we look at these things and we feel attracted to them, we actually find ourselves attracted to other people that we know too little about. But we suddenly become curios enough to want to discover their stories, and with that, maybe also discover something new about ourselves.
This is how I became curios about Mühle House. Back when I just became a student in Timişoara, I had the opportunity to live, for a while, nearby Mühle House. So, I passed by her several times on my daily routine and I would always look at her, study her beauty and wonder what was her story and what was to become of her. Back then, I though it was a very strange phenomenon, that such a jewel was neglected. I found it strange that, although the object was so strongly pronounce and had so much to offer, it was never given the chance to exist and be part of her surroundings. It was as if it had been disconnected from reality.
Back then I thought that surely there must be a plan for her and that surely there must be some people that have already taken action and started to come up with a solution to save her. And the fact that there is nothing happening right now, is because a good strategy takes time and dedication. So, I didn't want to jump to any silly and premature conclusions, because I wanted to believe that the situation was complex, but an appropriate solution was surely on the way. This was back between the years 2009-2010.
After some time, I started doing some research about the house and I found out about the Mühle Family and I also found out that this jewel was actually their home. I found out about Wilhelm Mühle and Árpád Mühle, his son, and their achievements. I found out about Wilhelm Mühle's rose plantations, greenhouses and vast gardens, where he would produce over 1500 of species. I found out that the roses that were grown here in Timişoara, were also distributed around Europe, and after some time, they found their way to the gardens of many of the royal families around Europe. I found out that Timişoara received the title of the „The City of Roses” due to Wilhelm Mühle's achievements.
When I started working on the first sketches with Mühle House for the good people from Heritage of Timişoara and their upcoming event, I was trying to figure out which approach was most suited for the illustration. I could have drawn the house as it was in the past, in it's good days, but then I would ignore it's present condition, although, I would have a more optimistic approach for the illustration. Or I could have drawn the house as it is now, degraded, and put aside all the magic in this case.
In the end, I chose to improvise and draw a different Mühle House from another parallel dimension, where she finds herself in the same degraded state, only in this version, she grows tired of waiting for her salvation and finds that she can be self sufficient and blossom all by herself. She starts covering her wounds with vegetation as a spontaneous solution. Her walls turn into green and her facades start redecorating all by themselves, the details are growing the same way and at the same rate as the vegetation around and inside the house, a natural growth of both the environment and the architecture. And in stead of the roof, we now see a giant and elegant rose rising, covering and protecting the house from any bad weather. So, we find ourselves in the presence of a Mühle House as a living organism, that is in the middle of a regeneration process. A regeneration process that was triggered by the energy that I mentioned earlier. A regeneration that came from the house's beauty and sincere characteristic. A regeneration that wouldn't have been possible if the house wouldn't have had all the stories and memories of the Mühle Family that surrounds her.
At the moment, the house is currently supported and kept alive by some temporal wooden structures. In the illustration, the house is supported by none other than Wilhelm and Josephine Mühle, and in the center of the illustration, standing on the terrace in front of the house, we find their child, Árpád Mühle. But we see him represented differently. Instead of his face, we see a Suferar star, a special star who's form resembles that of a flower's corolla with eight petals. Árpád is presented here as a dehumanized and timeless entity, a symbol. A symbol of the house's beauty and sincere architecture. A symbol of eternity. We will always find little Árpád playing on that terrace and waiting for a response from us regarding the house's fate.
