landscapes with antenna

Nouakchott- Atar, km 15

Just started a small series of diptychs (20X20 cm and 20X30 cm).
The series are about the road that links Nouakchott to Atar and the introduction over the last 3/ 4 years of communication antennes for mobile phones. Those almost empty spaces, devoid of human beings became occupied by the presence of those antennas that symbolise the arrival of technology in a land devoid of the most basic infrastructures.

demonstration at the blockate, Nouakchott

 Since the 25th of February 2011 young people have been demonstrating regularly at the "Place des blocks" an enormous empty space close to "Marché Capital" that's supposed to became the heart of a futuristic City Center.
They did demonstrate in this place and even tried to camp overnight but soon the police forces cleared the space. Since then the aim of the police is that no demonstrators put their foot in this ground, most of the time there are a lot more police securing the access to this spot than demonstrators.
The young people have been organising themselves through Facebook and Twitter and spreading their message, using not only arabic but all of the national languages as well as French (they still use mostly arabic).

demonstration for democracia real, Nouakchott

Spanish living in Nouakchott decided to demonstrate during an hour in front of their Embassy.

 Since the 15 of May Spanish people have been out in the streets protesting, I don't know how many of you're aware of the spanish revolution.  It ended up with a women reading the chart of democracia real.

 primeros momentos a las 7 de la tarde, un gendarme viene a questionar del porque de esta congregación

se reúnen todos para formar la palavra indignados

 llego tarde pero con el cartel, bravo

leyendo el manifesto

You can see photos of the event here . For great drawings from the event from Spain check Enrique Flores here from Madrid and Alvaro Carnicero in Cordova here

Beunge and Bendja

I just came across this great article (in French) about the music and dance from Atar and I wonder if the're talking about this group from Atar that I saw playing on women's day at the French Cultural Center.
Even if I can talk and understand the Hassania - the arab dialect spoken by the Moorish tribes of the Sahara, I've a lot of difficulty to understand music or poetry (I'm lacking a lot of vocabulary).
 But it was very powerful music sang by the women, unfortunately none danced.