Sketching in Mauritania

lawyers and human rights

2013-05-27T22:45:00.000Z

waiting for everyone to arrive

introduction and first case about what's happening to the nomads in Mali

three more cases, in USA, Mauritania and Aguel'hoc

defending two Mauritanian in Guantenamo for 10 years

defending Aliaa Magda Elmahdy

Organised by the National Council of Lawyers ( Ordre National des Avocates) and the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace a kind of contest was organised in Nouakchott. Eight lawyers from Mauritania, France, Sénegal, Marocco and Mali had to defend a real and recent case of violation of Human Rights. This could be done in French or Arabic. It took place at the IFM ( French Institute) as they weren't allowed to do it at the Palais de Justice.
A great morning spending listening how each lawyer defended in oratory the case he had chosen. Some of them I was familier with others like the case of the sale of the Hopi masks defended by Maitre Olivier Yacoub I had not heard about.
The winner was Maître Youssouf Ould Abdallahi that presented the case of two Mauritanian men kept at Guantanamo for more than ten years, Mohamedou Ould Sellahi and Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz and pressed charges against the the people who have been able to imprison people with no trials or defense.
The second place went to Maître Delphine Manuel-Lauriano who presented the case of Allia Magda Elmahdi an Egyptian women who used her body as a cry against a regime the believes women have no right to protest. ( today in exile she continues her struggle for women's rights you can visit her blog here in english and araabic and with lots of drawings and photos of women using their bodies to protest).
A booklet with all the cases was printed in French and Arabic. Great iniciative look forward for next years one. You can read more about it here in French

Hanane, African fusion

2013-05-25T23:27:00.001Z

Hanane at work

Hanane is preparing a new collection of jewellery inspired by the african beads for my gallery zeinart
I call it a sort of fusian because its very modern and it has an oriental touch as well.
I wanted to sketch her since I had seen her at work more than a year ago and saw the big glass instrument she wears to work on the smaller bits and pieces. Its always something odd about people that makes me want to sketch them, can be an element of their clothing, an instrument or action at work or just something about them.

concert Nora mint Seymali

2013-05-17T23:29:00.000Z

Haidara Mauritanian artist

2013-04-28T23:57:00.002Z

Hussein Haidara in his studio

Hussein Haidara its having his first solo show on the 7th Mai at the IFM in Nouakchott. Sculptures and paintings are being shown. Haidara's materiels are recycled mostly from nature, his sculptures have as their final layers different parts of the date palm tree.
His work turns always around the notion of evil and the capacity of men to do violence toward others for political, religious or racial motifs.

Portraits, aqui e ali

2013-03-26T22:09:00.001Z

Antonin Huchet, sculpteur

listening

fancy dress

still working

work

train

airport Casablanca

Marky

Rony Brauman à Nouakchott

2013-02-25T23:34:00.001Z

conference

public and speaker

question time

Echara or target shooting

2013-02-14T23:49:00.001Z

While taking a break from the city this christmas I went inland to the region of Adrar. One day we came across some men practicing target shooting in the middle of the desert. A very popular sport in Mauritania, competitions are held regularly. This was the sketch I chose to be used in the January's edition of Citymag a local monthly magazine distributed free to which I contribute.

Conference

2013-01-28T10:36:00.000Z

Michel Pierre on Sahara

starting the year inland, Wadane

2013-01-02T22:40:00.000Z

wedding party

looking at photos

Passe d'Amodjar

boys

vue of Ouadane

Acacia

acacia II

vue from the palmerie

Tenis and cinema in Nouakchott

2012-12-01T22:50:00.000Z

tennis players

Everyday these two friends come to practice their game in a large open space in the town center. The floor is not levelled and full of small stones and other stuff. They bring their own net and they call it the poor's man playing field. Basket ball players also practice in this same place.

Nouakshort film Festival

Mixed public at the Nouakchott short film festival, October 2012.

Cleaning of the markets

2012-11-25T21:47:00.000Z

A drawing from September when security forces were making sure all street sellers where being removed from unauthorized places. Most of this casual sellers earn their dayly meal from this activities wonder how they're feeding their families today.
You can see here how in Assilah, Marocco people are allowed to sell their old wares to make a little extra money.

Barcelona 2013 / Call for Submissions.

2012-11-05T10:13:00.004Z

Urban Sketchers is honored to announce the opening of “Call for Submissions of Workshop Proposals” to anyone interest in teaching at the 4^th International Urban Sketching Symposium, to be held at Barcelona in the Summer of 2013.

Due Date: December 15^th, 2012.

Selection process*

The proposals will be reviewed by the Urban Sketchers Workshop Program Committee, which includes Matthew Brehm, Gabi Campanario, Orling Domínguez, Virginia Hein, Veronica Lawlor, Fred Lynch, Melanie Reim, Swasky and Gail Wong. Selected proposals will be announced in January.

Compensation

The Symposium organization will pay for travel and four nights of a accommodation for the selected instructors. Local instructors who will not need to travel will receive an honorarium.

Workshop Proposal Form: Attach to this email you will find the “Workshop Proposal Form” that needs to be fill out completely and sent to orling@urbansketchers.org before December 15th, 2012.

For more info you can contact:

Orling Domínguez

Workshop Program Coordinator

orling@urbansketchers.org

Mix and match

2012-10-27T22:49:00.001Z

Tadiazt in concert before leaving to the refugee camps

poetry at sunset

Amano ag Issa

writers and publishers

Attaher and Aisha from Tadiazt

fresh orange juice at sunset

best pizza in town, Nouakchott

getting high listening to Tadiazt

a mix and match of images done here and there in Nouakchott, Mauritania. And the best pizza discovered a couple of weeks ago at Chez Antoine

street market, Assilah

2012-10-12T00:27:00.001Z

street wares for sale

For 5 days I was able to travel to the beautiful town of Assilah to sketch with Spanish sketchers and students from the Art school of Tetouan. Thanks, Inma Serrano ( click on her name to dicover her beautiful way of sketching) for inviting me and to Three Cultures Foundation for making possible this meeting of Andalusian and Moroccan artists.

This view is from the town of Assilah outside the walls of the old Medina in the old Spanish neighbourhood. After having drawn the eviction of street sellers in the markets of Nouakchott it was a pleasent surprise to see how in this city in Marocco you can just put a cloth on the floor , stall your goods on it, new or used and sell them to the passers by. For people in low incomes or with no work its a decent way to try and feed their family at the end of the day.

final version

2012-09-18T23:55:00.002Z

Taken today at the Institut français before the opening.

work in progress

2012-09-04T00:29:00.001Z

work in progress

This is my laast painting for my exhibition The Road opening on the 18th September in Nouakchott at the Institut Français.
I'm working layers over layers trying to reach this mental picture I have of how it should look at the end some days I believe I'm in the right path just to loose it all some hours later.
After spending months working on the small sizes that constitut the body of the exhibition this much bigger one is quite a challenge.

On the road, painting exhibition

2012-08-28T17:19:00.000Z

work in progress

My exhibition opens at 6 pm on the 18th of September 2012 at the Institut Français de Nouakchott, Mauritania. The theme is the road that joins Nouakchott to Atar in the region of Adrar. The only human presence in the paintings are the telecommunication antennes that keep proliferating in a country where most of its population doesn't have access to running water or electricity. But we can keep all in touch if we put some money in our telephones.

Festival de dattes de Tidjikja

2012-07-19T18:09:00.002Z

dattes mahboula

batha

Kassen et hassan

Zeinabou

vendeuses de dattes

cooperative barele ederroum

vendeurs de dattes

maure et enfants

jeune et palmeraie

la scene

portrait sketches

2012-06-30T22:49:00.000Z

players at Medina 3, Nouakchott

Taylor's at Medina 3, Nouakchott

jeweller at zeinart concept

more of the sketches I post in Urbansketchers here

Refugiée Tuareg

2012-06-30T15:36:00.000Z

Khadijetou Walet Khalit

Khadijetou walet Khalit, Touareg, left Bamako at the end of January 2012 and travelled to Timbuktu in search of her mother and family. Phones weren't working and she was really worried about their whereabouts. By the time she reached this northern town of Mali her family had already left by foot moving towards the frontier with Mauritania. At the same time military and civilians had started to attack the homes of the touaregs based in Bamako destroying everything and creating a wave of fear in the touareg community that forced many to leave the country empty handed. ( those attacks of civilians were due to the news reaching the capital that a Touareg liberation movement had been fighting the Malian military forces causing a lot of deaths)
The Malian army attacked the vehicle she was travelling with and she got really scared thinking her hour had arrived. She finally met them on the 7th of February in the city of Fassala in the Mauritanian border. From there they all moved to the refugee camps of M'Bere.
At the refugee camp she worked with the Mauritanian Croissant Rouge. She has now been for a month in Nouakchott. There are today more than 70.000 refugees in the camps and at least 4.000 touaregs in the city of Nouakchott.

Piano lesson at CIMAN

2012-06-28T00:17:00.001Z

Jaime is a spanish volunteer at CIMAN the Nouakchott Music School. Twice a week he gives piano lessons for two hours. The first our to the small ones and the second hour to teenagers. The school struggles to survive because of lack of funds and the few volunteers they have is what keeps it going. A first in Mauritania she is in her second year of existence. The school offered free lessons to local musicians to teach them to read music but no one seems to have been interested.

reading club

2012-06-07T23:29:00.000Z

the blue hair is my mistake

Discussing The great Gabsy by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Soirée at the Fondation Malouma

2012-05-16T23:51:00.002Z

Malouma mint Meidah, the poet Abdelkader from Boutilimit and Mr...

griots from every region of Mauritania

griots from the Southern regions

Qadi

Malouma mint Meidah

I was extremely pleased to have been invited to the Malouma's event at her foundation.
She brought a musician from each region of the country from all the different groups ( moors and African ethnies) and together they played a mode called "Karr", you can read here in french a good explanation about the traditional music from Mauritania each musician interpreting it in a different way influenced by their regional area.
Malouma's music mixes other rythmes like blues but she wanted to show the traditional musicians how her way of interpreting comes from the same roots.
I specialy enjoyed the voices of Lalla mint Tenarmich and of Qadi, being a bit older they cover their mouths with their veils when singing. If you're enjoying the music don't miss this old recording with great singing by Jeich ould Sedoum ould Abba and the great dances of the two teenager girls.

Amano ag Issa & Tadiazt

2012-04-27T21:25:00.001Z

Amano playing the teharden last night wit his group Tadiazt. To find more about these Touaregue family from Mali living as refugees in Nouakchott check here.

fashion design Mauritania

2012-04-24T22:54:00.000Z

Bana Korel, a young Mauritanian fashion designer chose to have an exhibition of her new collection at the Institute Français by recreating a shop inside the gallery and having a mini fashion show for the opening. The five models wore some beautiful gowns and outfits made with local dyed clothes.

Very colorful and elegant, the show was a success and the sales where going steadily as I left.
Sketches from last year exhibition here. The show marked the opening of the Libre Art festival.