More artistes from the DAK'ART 2014

Abdulaye Konate at the Galerie Manege

The parade by the artists from Benin

Solly Cissé at the Hotel de Ville

school children visiting the Village de la Biennale

Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch and Gemma Rodrigues talking at the installation of Candice Breitz

Mamdy Seydy at Toucouleur, sculptures

Espace Medina with Moussa Traoré et Jesus Ahedo

Justine Gaga, installation and Jesus Ahedo from Gallery Kalao in Bilbao

visiting Dakar and the Biennale - DAK'ART 2014

discussions artists and curators

Village de Joe Ouakan- Issa Samba

Opening of the International exhibition at the Musée Theodore Monod

In the gardens of the Musée Theodore Monod

Galerie National - Moustapha Dibé

left - Sylvain Sankalé,  critique d'art. right- installation of the work of the artistes of Benin. Le bois sacrée.

Spanish class in Casa das Artes

Carmen teaching Spanish 

One of the highlights of my short trip to Portugal,sketching my mother teaching Spanish to a small group of fellow pupils at Casa das Artes.
Casa das Artes provides lots of activities like theatre, painting and music but also runs a small school for retired people with languages, philosophy and history being some of the subjects taught.
They also have a restaurant with vegetarian and local food at very good prices. My mother always eats there when she goes there as a teacher or as a pupil.

visiting Umbrete and Jerona, Spain

celebrations in Umbrete

Virgen de la Consolacion, Umbrete

church hour

nuns and streets

Plaza de la Iglesia

preparing for the party 

snails 

Rosi and food 

Ramon in Jerena 

Taberna Galeria La Bomba, Jerena

dressed up children

Hot August month visiting a friend in Southern Spain, small villages with plenty of churches, snails season and lots of other good food. Summer time night activities with parades were the locals dressed in traditionnel custums and retold the stories of the foundations of the villages

writing down the music, Malouma et Mike Herting

Malouma mint Meidah

  Moorish music is passed on orally, parents teach their children who in turn will teach theirs.
Mike Herting, composer, orchestra conducter and jazz pianist from Germany is in Mauritania at the moment working with Malouma mint Meidah trying to write down all the ways, modes and notes of the traditionnal music.

Lalla

 I went sketching twice at the Fondation Malouma. Yesterday they were recording the different modes. There was Lalla mint Teikmich, drum and voice, Malouma ardin (harp-like stringed instrument) and voice and Malouma's brother Lemrabott playing the tidinit (a small hourglass-shaped, four-stringed lute)

Malouma et Mike Herting

Today Mike was writing down the musical notes. Apparently apart of the notes we'll know ie DO RE MI...

there are demi notes for piano and in Moorish music there are even quarter of notes, meaning within the Do and the RE you can find two extra notes - explanation given by Mike and that I suppose its legible to musicians

Mike Herting listening to the musical notes

It was a priviledge to be able to listen to those great musicians playing while recording and note taking went on You can learn more about Mike and this project sponsered by the Goethe Institut of Dakar here. You an also listen to one of Malouma's music here.

Mike herting writing the musical note

January at the beach

Old rain sketches

Socogim PS

mosquée et école, Socogim PS

épicerie Abidine, Ksar

Festival Paroles d'écrits

Mr X

Marie Huot

sécurité

chamelier

Mariem Mint Derwich

Abdelvetah Ould Mohamed

Malouma Mint Meidah

In the middle of the dunes, just outside Noakchott, poetry by men and women, young and old.
Fresh camels milk was served, tea was served. The sun went down behind a dune and the moon came up over another one.  The magic place was Dunes Soukouk.
Rencontres / lectures
Un après-midi magique surles dunes, sous une khaima, ponctué de discussions et de lectures de poèmes des auteurs invités afin de découvrir leur textes, leurs intentions, leurs attentions, leur rêves aussi. Les poètes seront lá pour parler de La Poésie et des poésis  qui les ont nourri. Il y aura des voix qui vous feront entendre poémes d'ici et d'ailleurs, d'aujourd'hui et d'hier.

Nouakchott after the rain

Its been a week since the last rain fell in Nouakchott, the city is in a pitiful state. Many of the city neighbourhoods were built in areas lower than the sea level. The trucks that are going around to drain the water are seeing how the water keeps coming up from the underground.
This amazing set of images seen from the sky, taken by the collective "en haut" using a kite can give you an idea of the disaster.

I decided to go this morning to the 5émé a neighbourhood not far from the center and where there is two markets (5émé et 6émé) where I normally go to buy cloth and spices. I couldn't go further than the first crossroads. The tarmac was covered in mud and water and just a few bits were higher than the water. People were using the donkey carts to reach the market and men were renting plastic boots.

Traffic was not allowed in the tarmac that ld to the market, you either had boots to walk or you would pay for a place in a donkey cart. But the other tarmac covered in water was busy and trucks and four wheel drives were bravely crossing it. As I sat nearby sketching I saw two trucks and a van geting stuch on the big holes in the tarmac hidden from view by the dirty waters.
People I know have had to leave their homes and neighborhoods because of the water. Even the ones that didn't suffer during the rain fall have been forced to leave as the water is now coming from the underground due to a saturted water table.
All kind of theories are going around about what's causing this and of the imminent disparition of the city in the years to come.
The biggest problem at the moment is were are all the people left homeless going to live? No one as answers to that.
What is going to come out of those stagnant waters ? Mosquito's are already breeding by millions and are the big talk of the city. Let's hope it doesn't go further than that....