Remember the best museum ever? You don't have to travel to France or Switzerland to see a Tinguely. If you're in the vicinity of Columbus, Indiana, you can see one of his moving sculptures, Chaos I, in the lobby of the Commons.

The entrance to the Commons is at Washington and 3rd Street. I'm telling you this so you don't confuse yourself with Google Maps and drag your friends through the rain looking for this place (it's NOT the Commons Mall, which appears to just be a Sears).

If you time your visit right, you may get to see more action than the usual three or four whirring, spinning parts (still cool). Apparently the large metal balls drop between noon and 1 and 5 and 6 p.m.

Chaos I is one of two Tinguely installations in the United States. The other is Cascade in the Carillion Building in Charlotte, North Carolina. After I watching this video, I will surely take a field trip to see this if I ever have an extended layover in Charlotte. Hopefully a cab driver can get me there better than Google Maps.

Hike. Visit family. Drink Rivella and eat sausage on mountains. These are the things I usually do in Switzerland. Visiting museums is not a top priority on Swiss trips, but I would visit Basel's Tinguely Museum every time.

Jean Tinguely was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic sculptures. He collaborated with his second wife, Niki de Sainte Phalle, on the Stravinksy Fountain next to the Pompidou Center in Paris. He's got a piece, Chaos I, in Columbus, Indiana. Basel has his Faschnachts-Brunnen (literally, Carnival Fountain, but apparently it also goes by just "the Tinguely fountain") -- and the museum.

I love a good interactive museum. The City Museum in St. Louis is less of a museum and more of a dangerous playground, but the Tinguely reminds me of it. In the main hall, you can climb stairs up and through a two-story conglomeration of steel, giant wheels, ladders, a carousel horse, fake geraniums in a window box, and an upside-down garden gnome dipped in and out of a vat of water.

Another garden gnome

Stamping on large buttons placed on the floor in front of the sculptures sets them into motion.To preserve the sculptures, timers monitor how frequently button-pushing activates them, so sometimes you push and nothing happens. You move on. Then the next guy comes along, and the sculpture's clanking scares you into scurrying back to catch it in action.

This one makes music

The Tinguely is also home to one of the more terrifying sculptures I've seen. Tinguely used the remains of a burned-down farm house to build Mengele-Totentanz. It is like a nightmare you're shocked your brain would give you. With time, this room's shadows, chains, and skulls fade to a creepy memory, pushed aside in favor of the museum's big, clangy, fun pieces. I thought maybe it was a temporary installation, but no, it's always there, waiting for my next visit. And despite the creepiness, I'll always be open to another visit.

Chaos I in Columbus

Just Exploring the Tinguely Museum