Messy blog / a house of women

“Four generations of women living together in the same house”

STATEMENT: I don’t like impersonal houses and I can’t imagine people living in prefabricated houses, houses from catalogues or falsely minimalist houses. Although I like many of those that appear in magazines, I don’t really believe them; so much design, so many brands, everything so well placed, so perfect… Having said that and assuming that a good part of you have stopped reading me, I continue: because from now on I want to talk about the houses that surprise me, those different and personal houses, that speak of their inhabitants, of their life, of their history, houses that are often somewhat crowded and, why not say it, messy. Houses of friends and acquaintances, anonymous, artists without renown, antique dealers, peasants, outsiders, extravagant and bohemian people. 

This is Disordered_blog and Our first guests are Chris Bartels, his mother Hanna, his daughters Ana and Simona and his granddaughter Judith, a family of German origin who live in inland Mallorca.

Judith, Chris, Simona, Hanna, Ana and Noëlle

When Chris arrived in Mallorca in the 1970s to spend a few days on holiday with some friends, she had a rather poor image of the island at the time, but when she arrived at the port of Palma, the smell of salty sea air had such an effect on her that she fell in love with the place. She soon bought a small country house near Sineu with Bert, her partner.

The garden

In the winter of 1978, Chris and Bert moved in, although the house was practically in ruins. For the first few months, they slept in sleeping bags, huddled next to the old kitchen hearth that didn't even have a roof.

The old kitchen now restored

Without any previous experience, they restored the house themselves, following the advice of an old bricklayer from the village. They rebuilt the roof and the ceilings, repaired the fallen walls, and even opened a path from the house to the main road. They washed with a watering can and, as they had no electricity, they used kerosene lamps and cooked on a camping gas stove.
In 1980, their daughter Anna was born, and the following year, Simona, who shared an unconventional and alternative life with their parents, without electricity, television or washing machine. “Girls who played with twigs and flowers” - as a family friend would say - while helping their father to rebuild the old walls of the house.

Chris and his daughters Ana and Simona

They even hung a sign at the entrance to the road announcing in German that they were selling fresh eggs. Some compatriots came over to chat and have tea, but little else.
In the mid-eighties Chris began selling antiques, first at the Inca flea market, later at the Palma flea market.
At first glance, Chris didn't fit in very well in that environment; she was German and had a distinction and elegance that was unusual for that time and place.

Palma Flea Market 1993

I think it was in 1993 when we met her; back then Robert and I We lived in Palma and as good apprentice antique dealers that we were then, on Saturday mornings we went to the trace.
I remember buying a hand loom from her and a few years later meeting her again in Sineu where she had opened a small and charming antiques shop “Antik & Deco”, even buying a batch of wool in incredible colours from her that came from the town's now-disappeared carpet factory.

Chris's bedroom corner

Over the years, Chris has become one of the island's leading antique dealers. On Wednesdays during the market she opens her shop in Sineu, on Sundays we can find her at the flea market in Consell, she participates in annual antique fairs, she regularly travels to France and Germany in search of unique furniture and antiques.

In her home she perfectly combines Nordic objects, French garden furniture, materials such as zinc, fabrics, books, ceramics, baroque carvings, dolls and old paintings with authentic Mallorcan construction, which she has known how to respect and maintain, such as the hearth of the old kitchen, the whitewashed walls and the Mallorcan “trespol” floor made of lime and pebbles.

 Typical Mallorcan door with a German touch

Some curious neighbors

On Christmas Eve they light up the house only with candles, this photo was taken on a day
any at dusk, so imagine what it must look like on Christmas Eve.

Chris's bedroom, books, books and more books...and a beautiful light coming through the
window at sunset

A lived-in interior, somewhat baroque, a little crazy, intentionally disordered, in a simple and austere construction such as the Mallorcan country house.
I definitely love it and it certainly reflects the life that Chris led for years with Bert and now continues with his daughters, his mother and his granddaughter.

Boxing gloves

Simona, Noëlle and Chris doing magic

Finally, I am left with Chris's reflection on the years spent in this house with her husband Bert, when their daughters were small, they were rebuilding the house and at the same time struggling to live in a Mallorca that is not always the paradise of dreams:“They were very hard years but the happiest of my life”

Perhaps this is what he meant Mascha Kalenko in his poem:

aZhouseZofZwomen.pdf