Sketching in Mauritania

Tradition et modernité

2012-01-31T23:24:00.000Z

odds

2012-01-25T23:25:00.000Z

Medina 3, Nouakchott, underneath the tree, men play draughts.

a "forgeron" or silversmith, with an old instrument to drill holes in the wood. Marché Artisanale, Route de Rosso

Mamadou Anne, painter, singing and playing his red guitar at the opening of his exhibition at the Institute Français, Nouakchott

Plantes médicinales de Mauritanie

2012-01-19T00:41:00.000Z

I went to this talk today about healing herbs in Mauritania, a book as been published naming all the trees and herbs and its properties that can be found in the Sahara all the way to the river Senegal written by Michel Thouzery and Abdallahi O Mohamed Vall. The book itself is a very good source of information with all the names not only in french but in all the local languages, as a bonus, the plates with the drawings of the plants have been done by Marie-Françoise Delarozière, a lady that lived and worked as the Director of the French Culturel Center in Nouakchott in the 90's and which draw and painted all aspects of the Mauritanian traditions publishing many books that are valuable as ,any of the things she covered are slowly disapearing. Her watercolours and drawings are beautiful. A number of those books are being distributed at a symbolic price in Mauritania so that students and traditional practicioners can have access to them. Another part can be found at the Institute Français and at Galerie Sinaa where in exchange of a donation you'll be having your own copy. The money is going towards translating the book in arabic, so be generous.

Ouadane 2012 and Zaida

2012-01-09T01:32:00.002Z

Portrait of Zaida

I spent 12 days in Ouadane at my friends Zaida's Auberge Vasque I cut my phone and access to internet was impossible. Hermann and I spent some days helping her decorate and prepare the place for the big Festival of the Ancient Villages, Ouadane 2012 starting the 4th February and lasting a week. Music, poetry, camel races and lots of activities and exhibitions are being prepared.

Ouadane in the region of Adrar is one of the ancient villages from the time of the caravans where the first universities of the desert were born.

The day I arrived some friends and neighbours were having a cookie lesson from a French tourist. Actually French nationals are told not to travel in Mauritania as most of the country is considered red zone. But the region of the Adrar is probably the safest of all the country because of its geographical position firstly and due to the interests of Total and other Canadian and Chinese companies. In the region local Army and French "army instructors" are abondant.

One of the engines being used to make the dirty track of 180 Km from Atar to Ouadane more confortable. Ouadane has only had electricity on the last year. Most of the houses haven't got running water and as in most of the country there are no sewage system. But Ouadane has been using the ecological dry toilettes since the beginning of its existence.

Children were on holidays and the weather was extremely cold so TV was a must for them but amazingly the favorite programme of adults and children alike was a Mexican "telenovela"" Mari Chuy

A big group of japanese tourists came to visit and stayed at Ouadane it seems Japan imports a lot of octopus from Mauritania and these as the Italians, the German, Dutch and Americans we met didn't seem to think that travelling through this wonderful landscapes where the locals are so friendly was a threat to their lives more serious than just living.

or New Year we drove to an Oasis not far from Ouadane and had a great "mechouie" lamb grilled over a charcoal fired prepared by dada who delighted as with local songs while Zaida and I tried to do our best at dancing all by candlelight.

more music and parties

2011-12-22T23:51:00.001Z

odds

2011-12-16T22:02:00.000Z

Conference on story telling, speakers and public.

As part of the Festival books had a 50% reduction grant.

Somedays before Patrick Sirot talking to the artistes at Maison des Artistes during his drawing workshops.

Tailors and artistes

2011-12-07T22:47:00.001Z

Diallo et Mamadou, tailors at Medina 3

Patrick Sirot drawing workshop at the "Maison des Artistes", Ilot K

I don't know if was the visit of Enrique that got me out in the streets again. I know I wanted to find time in my busy schedule to go out again for a long time.

I'm also starting a monthly drawing reportage to be published every month in a free magazine "Citymag" that's distributed in Nouakchott. Another reason to go out more often.

And great news if you're in Lisbon. Don't miss the release of the book put together by Eduardo Salavisa and published by Quimera, "Urban sketchers in Lisbon, drawing the city" a bilingual edition with more than 300 images made by the 200 sketchers from 20 different countries who met at the urban sketchers Symposium, July 21-23, to sketch and talk about sketching.

Port de pêche artisanale

2011-12-05T21:14:00.001Z

It had been a long time since I had been in the fish market sketching. The visit of Enrique Flores and Antonia Santolaya to Mauritania and Senegal was the perfect occasion as I had the pleasure of taking them both there. You can check their drawings here. I had no time for portraits, as their visit to the capital was very short and they spent most of their time visiting the desert and the coastal areas.

Give a little...get a sketch!

2011-11-26T10:17:00.001Z

Take a look at more than 35 sketches by Urban Sketchers around the world that you can choose from in the Flickr set here if you make a donation . For a small donation, you can download high-resolution image that you can print out and display. If you make a donation of $75 or more, you can choose a print from this set, sent to you directly from the artist. More on how to donate is in this post on the Urban Sketchers blog.

The money that you help raise will go toward organizing an international symposium and cover a scholarship program to encourage artists to sketch and their part of the world, one drawing at a time. Thank you for your interest!

R'gueiba, Banc d'Arguin

2011-11-23T20:59:00.001Z

Dahjeba, the drum player

clapping and singing

Tahra mint Embara and Steve Shehan

Tahra mint Embara

R'gueiba school

Those where posted at Urban Sketchers with comments here and here

Oumar Ball "Oiseaux du désert" installation

2011-11-16T22:50:00.001Z

Oumar Ball last preparations

setting up

Today, thursday 17th November, will be the opening of the exhibition "Oiseaux du désert, oiseaux du Banc d'Arguin" an installation by Oumar Ball at Galerie Sinaa.

A Mauritanian artist, with whom I've been working closely for the past year.

Its the first time I'm curating an exhibition and working with Oumar has been very enriching in many ways. Not only I try to push him to his limits and to get him to question and criticise his own work but I see how easy we accomodate and how difficult it is to keep pushing forward.

Many years ago a Portuguese sculptor, Jorge Vidal, made me draw my own hand and every time I stopped he kept saying keep going... at the time I did it reluctantly as I was already satisfied with what I had done but as he kept telling me to keep working on this one drawing I saw how it got stronger.

I saw myself doing the same thing to Oumar I just hope that I'll be so exigent on my own work as I was with him.

Don't miss it if you're in Nouakchott.

Also if you speak French there's an interview of Oumar Ball and of myself, the 4th of December in France Culture a two hour radio interview from 2 pm to 4 pm by Arnaud Contreras about the city of Nouakchott.
Great article in French about the installation.

Odds from my visit to the Banc d'Arguin

2011-11-15T23:30:00.001Z

An ornithologue washing up the dishes in the morning and a dead limicole in Cap Tafarit.

A Basque, a Bretonne and a young Amrigue making tea at the village of Teichott.

party's and concerts in Nouakchott

2011-11-01T09:50:00.001Z

Teinture

2011-10-31T22:28:00.002Z

and on a windy, sandy afternoon we dyed cloth with the help of Fatimata.

Markez Le Lehsera

2011-10-05T00:20:00.001Z

Mariem with fingerless gloves doing the hem of a handmade carpet of natural fibers and leather typical of this region. You can see photos of the carpets at Sinaa as we exhibited the carpets during the month of September.

Matys and the African masks

2011-09-09T22:48:00.001Z

Thanks to Matis I went to france on a short holiday.
He had visited the African exhibition at the Musée d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux and he was so impressed he phoned his oncle in Mauritania to tell him about it and asking if he could go over to see it.

Great exhibition made mostly of collector pieces.

Oysters and landscapes of France

2011-09-08T23:59:00.000Z

On a short visite to France my partner and I were invited to visit a friend for lunch in the charming fishing village of Port de Barques in the Charente Maritime.

I was very impressed with the Carrelets, a square net locals use to fish shrimps from small huts on stilts...beautiful.
And nicer but in a different way was the enormous plate of oysters our friend served us for lunch, délicieux, merci ma copine.

But the oysters you see above are not the ones from my friend but the ones my sister in law got us the day after. We all drove to Port de la Guittiére to buy them. Another small village with superb views.

Unspoiled nature in this region along the Atlantique coast.

Sleeping at airports

2011-08-19T19:49:00.001Z

Lisbon Portraits

2011-08-03T18:16:00.000Z

Sketches of Lisbon

2011-07-31T14:57:00.000Z

Only the tram is missing from the view from my Hotel Borges window and as someone said we were paying for location not even internet connection was free shame on you.

An open air free concert seen after having dinner with sketchers from all over the world.

The worse of a city, when the wheels take over the place that should belong to walkers, workshop with João Manuel Ramos during the Symposium.

Card players, old and young

2011-07-26T20:02:00.000Z

Jardim Principe Real

card players in the jardim

card players in the train

The Urbansketchers Symposium at Lisbon came and went in a cloud of excitement and sharing.

Sharing of drawings, tips and tools, find out more here and here.

I needed a quiet day with no people around me just to try and take in all those days were people that loved drawing were together to share their knowledge and skills with other people that loved drawing and were there to share their knowledge and skills. And that's how it went for three full days, there were no better or worse just different ways of looking and documenting the world around.

For that last day in Lisbon I chose the gardens of Principe Real because of its centenary trees. The card players were a happy discovery even if they were reluctant at the beginning to let me sketch them some finally agreed and I didn't sketch the grumpy ones. But when they saw it finished they loved it and thought it was something out of old times.

The funny thing is that the same day in the train taking me to the south a bunch of young Italians sat in the train's bar and started playing cards, they didn't mind at all that I sketched them and they loved the result even if I had to leave it half way as I had reached my station.

Sketching in Lisbon

2011-07-14T15:53:00.000Z

Kolovrat 79 a beautiful shop in Principe Real.

Rua do Século

Old rubber tree at Principe Real

Old pine tree at Principe Real supported by an iron structure.

Mauritanian music for my exhibition in Lisbon

2011-06-28T21:55:00.000Z

Today I met Chris from Sahelsounds ( a blog you should visit if you like music). He did a sample of musical field recordings that I will play during my exhibition at the Paula Cabral Art Gallery .
See previews post for more details. Opening night friday 8 of July at 7 pm, all welcome !!!
There will be electric guitar music, bird sounds, road sounds, Koranic recitation and people speaking as the musicians play at a wedding. For us who live in Mauritania this music represents the sounds of the country.

Lisbon exhibition, 8th of July, mark your calenders.

2011-06-14T00:37:00.000Z

Km350

I've a coming up exhibition in Lisbon at the Paula Cabral Art Gallery. There will be a painter from South Africa, Adrienne Silva and another painter, Jirina Nebesarova from the Czech Republic.

This was the opportunity I was waiting for to start a series about the road leading to Atar (or anywhere else in this desert country that only has four tarmac roads, the one to Atar, North East, the one to Rosso and to the frontier od Senegal that runs South, the "route de l'espoir" the longest with more than 1200 Km towards the East and the Malian border and the most recent the road that was finished in 2005 and that runs from the Northern frontier (Western Sahara) to the South and like all of them has its converging point in Nouakchott the capital - another tarmac road is being built that runs along the river Senegal)

Mobile antennes just like the roads are opening the country to the rest of the world and vice versa.

They both allow for more mobility and communication making people less vulnerable.

In a country as big as Mauritania with a very small population just over 3 million, news about events would arrive always with delay, days, weeks, months? Always making people feel detached of what was happening in the rest of the country. The same for news from relatives or friends living in another area.

Km 75

For me the most amazing thing about the desert is its immensity and how it makes us conscious of our utter insignificance.

This series show the desert seen from the tarmac road that links Nouakchott to Atar, 409 Km.

The point of view never changes and the places are always deserted of people.

The sizes are small 20 X 20 cm and 30 X 20 cm worked as diptychs. (since I've been living here the size of my work has adjusted to my means of transporting them, Big if they can be rolled , small if not)

I want to have music playing on head phones during the exhibition and while looking for Mauritanian music in the net I came across this great blog about Sahel and desert musique where you can even download it and got in touch with Chris that hopefully will help me in choosing local musique that best will convey the greatness of this country that can seem so empty and repetitive to those who cross it in a hurry.

If you're in Lisbon please come and visit the exhibition it will be on until the 6th of August. I'm also participating at the second urbansketchers symposium in Lisbon the 21-23rd July registration is open until the 4th of July.

Conference le Printemps Arabes, Pr. Bertrand Badie

2011-06-01T09:30:00.000Z

For more information on the conference check my post at urbansketchers.org