Tahra mint Hembara, music and Tabous

 Tahra mint Hembara with Steve Shehan

 Tahra mint Hembara

 Playing in R'Gueiba

The traditional "tbol" of R'Gueiba

Tbol and chorus

Tahra mint Hembara, the greatest ardine player in Mauritania, gave a concert in one of the villages of the Banc d'Arguin last year. That's where I first met her. She played with Steve Shehan as part of a project to valorise the culture of the" Imaraguen", the inhabitants of the fishing villages of the National Park of the Banc d'Arguin.

Today Tahra is again in the news but for her comments to the Press on "violence against women" declaring herself a victim and speaking loud about one of the many tabous of the society she belongs to. 

She has made a special song that she will be playing during the big march that's being organised in Nouakchott by the civil society for women's day, the 8th March.

Oumar Ball "Oiseaux du désert" installation

 Oumar Ball last preparations

setting up

setting up

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.

 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 it is to be satisfied with what we do 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

 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.

Où sont les gazelles ?

A virtual book for a taste of what my drawings might look like when the book actually gets published in September. 2010 being the biodiversity year, WWF and FIBA will help publish this book that will be distributed on the schools of the National Park of the Banc d'Arguin in Mauritania.Find out more about the Park here and about the Imragen fishermen here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More watercolors

illustrations

illustrations

By the sea side

There are eight fishing villages in the National Parc of the "Banc d'Arguin.The people who live here have been fishing by foot and for the last 60 odd years by sailing boats since immemorial times, the first written account in the fifteen century by a portuguese traveller.

The "Imraguens" as they are called, live in small rectangled rooms made of wood planks that have substituted the tents and they are starting to use bricks and cement even if the salty air destroys everything very fast.

Men go out fishing while women transforme the fish that's caught, By drying it and boiling the heads to extract fish oil.

Men mend their nets, they repaint their boats and together with women they repair their sails.

The park is a protected area where birds and fish find refuge to reproduce themselves and to spend the long months of winter.

Women having classes to learn to read and write they are open to all adults but men don't frequent them due to their work.

A young girl washing the clothes. Water is precious here it comes in barrels of 200 litres from as far as 100km only some villages from 2008 have had their first structures to transforme sea water into sweet water.