Tuğçe Tuna performance dance at the Istanbul Biennal 2017

Tuğçe Tuna performance/dance

Tuğçe Tuna performance/dance

Tuğçe Tuna performance/dance

Tuğçe Tuna performance/dance

Küçuk Mustapha Paça Hammam, Fatih, Istanbul

One of the highlights of my visit to the Istanbul Biennal was the performance at the Küçük Mustapha Pasa Hammam. Hearing about it by chance after assisting at the conference by Heba Amin on her work at the Pera Museum. We decided to go and find this Hammam in the middle of the night in the neighborhood of Fatih. The taxi dropped us not far and every person we asked for the way kept saying the hammam was closed but finally someone took us there.

We were only a few guests most of the people invited for this private view were probably enjoying the dinner and after given by the Biennal.

We were not prepared for what we saw and we really were taken emotionally and mentally by the work of this choreographer/performer and her group. You can find about her here and here is the link for videos of her work.

The text in the drawings its her words about the performance.

put on your red shoes

At a private party a bunch of young boys stares at the adults in the dance floor.

paintings November 2015

Envol, acrylique sur toile, 60X90 cm 

oiseaux bleu, acrylique sur toile 40X60 cm   

Buverteta, acrylique sur toile, 60X90 cm 

Rikha, acrylique sur bois, 20X30 cm

Zaida I, acrylique sur bois, 20X30 cm

Zaida II, acrylique sur bois, 20X30 cm

Zueinoua, acrylique sur bois, 20X30 cm

melhefas, acrylique sur isorel, 20X20 cm

'douceur et ardeur'

une recherche autour du voile et du mouvement

''Octobre 2014, je commence un travail de recherche autour de la danse féminine Maure.

Le ''melhefa'', voile vaporeux et fluide que les femmes du Sahara portent, est utilisé différemment selon les mouvements de la danse.

C'est cette recherche de mouvement que j'ai voulue travailler.

Peintre de paysages et de portraits, plutôt de l'inertie.

Comment j'aborde ce projet? Je dessine, je croque, je danse, écoute la musique et je peins.

Exposition à l'IFM de Nouakchott novembre 2015

Music in Nouakchott, Chinese à la Ancienne Maison des Jeunes

Ambiance et dance, ancienne Maison des Jeunes

Nouvel année Chinois

les troupes de Mongolie

Loud and colorful and full of an enthusiastic audience (mostly composed by Mauritanians) the show organized by the Chinese Embassy to commemorate the Chinese New Year - the year of the monkey - was a winner. And an occasion to keep experimenting pencils on this special paper made of 80% calcium carbonate that comes from limestone recovered from quarries and from building Industry waste, the other 20% if you're wondering are from non-toxic resins.

Ouadane, sans festival de villes Anciennes

Every year we leave Nouakchott at the end of December and spend sometime relaxing and enjoying the change in the small Oasis of Ouadane in the Adrar.

The Souk and Landrover

Music, meeting new people, seeing our friends and visiting the oasis close to Ouadane fill our journeys.

Musique from Oualata

Young girls singing in a small grocery

wedding with dancer

dancing and video recording

dancers and young men in the roof terrace

Singing in the market

I normally dont sketch a lot in Ouadane but this year I finished the sketch book I brought in 5 days. I was given a very beautiful one in rice paper by Japanese photographer Chizuko Kato who's been travelling in Mauritania every year since 2002 you can see her work here

Chizuko Kato and her guide Eylia

Like every year we meet plenty of people who travel through all Mauritania, solo or with a guide or with friends. This year we met for the first time Jacques Bonnet an 80 year old french man that has been living in Chinguetty (another well known oasis in the Adrar) for the last 20 years. He's the owner of two camels and he moves around by foot in the company of his camel driver, Nefa.

Jacques Bonnet, chamelier de Chinguetti

He loves going to the Festival's by camel and it took him one week form Chinguetti to Ouadane as there was lots of grass and they let their camels graze. When the Festival is in Oualata it takes him 40 days to arrive there and another 40 days to get back.

Jacques and Nefa, camel drivers

the camel's of Jacques and Nefa

back in the studio

new work coming soon

drawing in the dark, Taigue Ahmed

A choreographer and dancer from Tchad, Taigue Ahmed, doing a solo based on his experiences as a young boy in the war and how his mother got him out of the country by dressing him up as a girl. 

Very strong and beautifully performed but for the second time in the last months I drew on complet dark keeping my eyes in the stage (to see the women's concert on women's day click here)