Museums

Maison d’Ailleurs

The Maison d’Ailleurs, a museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys, is unique in its genre in the world. Founded by the encyclopaedist Pierre Versins in 1976, the Maison d’Ailleurs has an exceptional collection related to science fiction.

La Maison d’Ailleurs, Yverdon-les-Bains

The Maison d’Ailleurs is an original cultural site: on the one hand it is the only European museum that dedicates all its exhibitions to science fiction art, utopia and extraordinary journeys. In fact, as a museum open to the public, the Maison d’Ailleurs offers its visitors the opportunity of examining the imaginary side of technology, as well as alternative forms of society. On the other hand, and to complete this examination, the Maison d’Ailleurs archives a huge volume of documentation. In fact, the 120,000 documents in its possession make this museum the most important documentary centre in the field of science fiction: it has 80,000 books in addition to cartoons, comics, pulp fiction, film posters, pictures, toys, records and artworks.

Up to now, some thirty temporary exhibitions have been set up at the museum, exploring a multitude of science fiction topics (space travel, utopia, steampunk sculptures, video games etc.), or allowing visitors to discover major creators in this field (Mervyn Peake, James Gurney, H.R. Giger, John Howe, Alejandro Jodorowsky). Since 2008, the Maison d’Ailleurs has hosted a permanent exhibition devoted to the work of Jules Verne (and other pioneers of science fiction), which is connected to the museum by an avant-garde footbridge. Furthermore, in 2013 the museum will open the first permanent exhibition in the world dedicated to science fiction of the 20th century: Souvenirs of the future.