Marwencol is a miniature town in

Kingston, New York Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...

created by the American artist Mark Hogancamp. On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside of a bar by five men who beat him nearly to death after he drunkenly told them he was a

cross-dresser Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

. After nine days in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

and 40 days in the hospital, Hogancamp was discharged with

brain damage Neurotrauma, brain damage or brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating t ...

that left him little memory of his previous life. Unable to afford therapy, he created his own memory by building a -scale

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

-era

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

town in his yard and populating it with dolls representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers. He called the town "Marwencol", blending his own name with that of a local bartender Wendy and his neighbor Colleen. Hogancamp was initially discovered by photographer David Naugle, who documented and shared his story with ''Esopus'' magazine, whereby his work was shown in

White Columns White Columns is New York City’s oldest alternative non-profit art space. White Columns is known as a showcase for up-and-coming artists, and is primarily devoted to emerging artists who are not affiliated with galleries. All work submitted is ...

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

In media

The film '' Marwencol'' (also known as ''Village of the Dolls'' in the UK) is a 2010 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

that explores Hogancamp's life and work. It is the debut feature of director-editor Jeff Malmberg. It was the inspiration for ''

Welcome to Marwen ''Welcome to Marwen'' is a 2018 American drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the script with Caroline Thompson. It is inspired by Jeff Malmberg's 2010 documentary '' Marwencol''. The film stars Steve Carell in the lead role, Les ...

'', a 2018 drama directed by

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...

and starring

Steve Carell Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott (The Office), Michael Scott in ''The Office (American TV series), The Office'' (2005–2011; 2013), NBC’s adaptation of the The Office (B ...

as Hogancamp. ''Welcome to Marwencol'' is a 2015 art book by Hogancamp and Chris Shellen, published by

Princeton Architectural Press Princeton Architectural Press is a small press publisher, specializing in books on architecture, design, photography, landscape, and visual culture, with over 1,000 titles on its backlist. In 2013, it added a line of stationery products, including ...

, that documents Hogancamp's life and work. It was named one of the best books of 2015 by

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

."Amazon's Best Arts & Photography Books of 2015"

. Retrieved December 9, 2018.

References

External links

* * Ronson, Jon (October 28, 2015)
"Marwencol: the incredible WWII art project created by a cross-dresser who was beaten up by bigots"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. * Daily Freeman (May 29, 2000)
"Another arrested in bar assault"
''

Daily Freeman The ''Daily Freeman'' is a seven-day-a-week morning newspaper in Kingston, New York, the Ulster County seat. Serving all of Ulster County and adjacent parts of three other counties in the mid-Hudson Valley—Greene, Columbia and Dutchess counties ...

''. * Times Herald-Record (April 11, 2000
"2nd man held in assault that left victim in coma"
''

Times Herald-Record The ''Times Herald-Record'', often referred to as ''The Record'' or ''Middletown Record'' in its coverage area, is a daily newspaper published in Middletown, New York, covering the northwest suburbs of New York City. It covers Orange, Sullivan ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marwencol Action figures Barbie Kingston, New York Miniature parks Outsider art Scale modeling Works about Belgium World War II in popular culture