“L’art de lutter. Contre les violences faites aux femmes et aux enfants” aims to revive debates on gender-based violence in Mauritania, from Nouakchott to the most remote villages of the Country, through meetings and workshops held by artists, artisans, musicians and activists.
The project was conceived in 2021 by Art Gallé, an art association based in Nouakchott as a mobile version of their initiative outside the capital. This 2023 edition of the project is a collaboration between Art Gallé and Cherimus. The goal is to continue and strengthen the action of this important initiative in Mauritania and spread knowledge about the project abroad, starting from Sardinia.
Since its creation, Art Gallé has touched on sensitive subjects, giving pencils, brushes, and paints to marginalized people in order to empower them to tell their own stories.
Art, in all its forms, can be a vehicle of change and transformation. Self-expression is an important tool to unpack dynamics of power and oppression.

Cherimus collaborated actively with Art Gallé to run conferences and workshops in January and July 2023 in Nouakchott, Boghé and Ouadane. The workshops put together artists, artisans and a large audience of different ages around pot making, henna art, music, painting and public art.
The conferences held in Nouakchott and Boghé were ran by Art Gallé and allowed women coming from all over the villages to gather and openly share their issues, connect and envision a network of support to not feel alone.

This process deepened the longstanding artistic dialogue on the topic of systemic gender-based violence with visual artist, activist and founder of Art Gallé, Amy Sow, a dialogue begun on the occasion of her visits to Sardinia in 2019 and 2022. 

Cherimus and Art Gallé will record the voices of the workshop participants, as well as Mauritanian artists and activists willing to share their experiences and statements, to create an audio podcast of the project.

The project “The art of fighting. Against violence against women and children in Mauritania” is financed by regional law n. 19 of 11 April 1996, of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia and by the Sardinia Foundation. The partners of the project are the Nivola Museum of Orani and the municipalities of Carbonia, Iglesias and Perdaxius; The F. Meloni comprehensive institute, the Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella association, Domusnovas.

January 2, 2023, Art Gallé, Nouakchott
Panel: L’apport des artistes dans la lutte contre les violences faits aux femmes et aux enfants

The first meeting on gender-based violence was held at ArtGallé where visual artist and activist Amy Sow, rapper Abda MC, journalist and activist Houleye Kane, and beautician Dado Bathily, moderated by sociologist and activist Djeynaba Ndiome, spoke about the legislative situation of the country and the need to deepen and broaden the knowledge about the topic. The speakers spoke, data in hand, of the vastness of the problem and opened a dialogue with the audience. Visual artist Emiliana Sabiu spoke at the meeting about Cherimus and its efforts to bring attention to these increasingly urgent issues in the rural areas of Sardinia and the importance of the recognition by the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna of this project to support the struggle on several fronts.
“The art of fighting” aims to bring discussions of gender-based violence from Nouakchott to the most remote villages of Mauritania through meetings and workshops held by artists and musicians.

January 3, 2023, Toujounine neighborhood, Nouakchott
Painting workshop

Art Gallé and Cherimus were welcomed by Mrs. Leila and the young people of the Toujounine neighborhood with traditional mint tea. The workshop held by Amy Sow aim was to strenght awareness about gender-based violence with a group of girls and boys held by the ArtGallé team led by Amy Sow. At the end of the meeting the girls and boys had the opportunity (for many of them, the first!) to experiment with painting.

January 4, 2023, Sylla’s atelier, Arafat neighborhood, Nouakchott
Natural dye workshop

Mr. Sylla held a workshop of traditional fabric-dyeing techniques from his atelier in the Arafat neighborhood south of Nouakchott.

January 6, 2023, Riad neighborhood, Nouakchott
Traditional doll-making workshop

Workshop in collaboration with the Association pour La Défense de la Voix des Enfants en Mauritanie (ADVEM) which hosts 120 children from the neighborhood and gives them early education. Visual artist and activist Amy Sow spoke about her artistic practice and started to raise some basic questions about gender-based violence and awareness and led a workshop to build traditional dolls.

January 6-7-8, 2023, Ndiagu

The project’s first scheduled trip outside the metro area of Nouakchott is at the center of a political clash between local authorities. The mayor of the village where a meeting and workshop was supposed to be held refuses to meet ArtGallé and Cherimus and does not grant space and support, despite the full consent of the regional authorities. The stated reasons are that in the territory they administer, violence against women and children does not exist.

June 26, 2023, Hawa Kassé’s workshop, Boghé
Pottery workshop

In June, six months after the first trip, Cherimus came back to Mauritania for the core part of the project.
After a six hour journey from Nouakchott together with the team of Art Gallé, we reached Boghé, where we met Hawa Kassé who taught us and all the participants of the workshop how to make terracotta vases. Hawa’s family specializes in the production of vases, especially those used until recently to store water and food. The vases are modeled by hand with local materials and are fired in pits. Even though all the children of the family help with the work, Hawa explained that young people are no longer interested in learning this craft, which is thus in danger of being lost. Visual artist Carlo Spiga, invited by Hawa and Art Gallé, created some lids for the vases adding to them small sculptures of animals made by children, evoking elements of Nuragic statuary.

June 26, 2023, Boghé
Bench-making workshop

In the heart of Boghé there is a wide valley where children play and run. We were told that for a few months of the year the basin is filled with water and fish from the Senegal River, a body of water around which the families, seated on the side of the road, gather to enjoy the landscape. Children often stay until late hours. Here, Art Gallé has organized a workshop to build and decorate benches so as to increase the comfort and safety of those who gather here. Boys and girls from nearby neighborhoods came by to paint and personalize the new benches, and the community began to use them right away. We assisted Amy Sow and Oumar Ndiaye in the organization of the workshops, building on the experience we gained together on the occasion of the project ”I giardini possibili”.

The evening of the 26th of June we were honored by the visit of the music star Amadou Tamba Diop, that had dinner with us and sang a welcome song for Cherimus and ArtGallé team.

Amadou Tamba Diop (1950-2023), legend of “Leelé”, a traditional music from the region of Fouta
<< Amadou Tamba Diop était réputé pour sa parfaite maîtrise de ce genre musical, dont il était toutes ces dernières années le chantre, témoigne un communicateur traditionnel via WhatsApp.
Selon plusieurs sources, ”son nom était intimement lié à des célébrités comme Sidy Chérif de Thilogne et Samba Diop ‘’Leelé’’, qui passe pour l’un des rares artistes du Fouta à avoir son nom associé au genre musical pratiqué.
Selon un article du Quotidien paru en septembre 2022, ‘’le Leelé est un genre littéraire, poétique et musical des Haalpulaar (Toucouleurs) du Fouta Tooro, qui prend sa source dans la culture multiséculaire de cette région du nord du Sénégal et du sud de la Mauritanie’’ >> (APS, Agence de presse Sénégalaise)

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June 26, 2023, Boghé
Panel Voix des femmes

Meeting with women from the Boghé region, invited to share their experiences and difficulties and to participate in an open discussion on gender-based violence. One participant asked, “Artists, what solution do you have?”

July 3, 2023, Alliance Francaise classroom, Ouadane
Henna workshop

Henna (حناء) is a dye prepared from the plant Lawsonia inermis, used since ancient times for the temporary tattooing of hands and feet, and the dyeing of hair. In Mauritania the practice of decorating the hands and feet with henna is traditionally made by women of a single caste, who make these elaborate decorations for the community.
This is why Amy Sow and Zaida Bilal imagined a workshop in which the boys and girls of Ouadane would feel free to experiment with henna designs, through colors and canvas. During the workshop, the traditional Mauritanian designs met the Sardinian symbols of Nuragic culture, giving rise to new combinations.
Small note: the workshop was hosted in one of the classrooms of the Alliance Francaise in Ouadane. In this room, there was a map of France. There was, however, no geographical reference either to Mauritania or to the African continent as a whole.

July 3, 2023, Ouadane
Bench-making workshop

In Ouadane, the evening brings relief from the high temperatures of the day. In an open space in the village, the elderly meet every day, sitting on the floor on traditional carpets, to chat, drink tea and play checkers, while the children run around. The dialogue between Zaida Bilal and Amy Sow gave rise to the idea of ​​building, coloring and installing three benches, which will make that space more comfortable, especially for the elderly. During the workshops, Cherimus and ArtGallé were able to discuss the methods adopted during the project and the children had the opportunity to experiment with painting, and to touch the colours, if only for once in their lives, as Amy tells us. 

July 2-3-4-5, 2023, Auberge Vasque Chez Zaida, Oudane

“No one gives you freedom, you have to take it,” says Zaida Bilal our partner in Ouadane.
This is how, in spite of many challenges, she centered herself and transformed her life and that of her community: starting from scratch, alone, she managed to build her hotel Auberge Vasque Chez Zaida in Ouadane. The space is more than simply a hotel: it is also a cultural and meeting center. Zaida takes guests and artists to the desert in her pickup truck and promotes a new economic and social model, pushing for the empowerment of local women and fighting against their exploitation.
In the photos, Zaida guides us -her guests from Cherimus and ArtGallé -to the “Eye of the Desert” and explains to us the geography of this impressive natural monument.

The last residency of the Common Places A.i.R. cycle. saw the artists of Collectif Kahraba as guests.

Founded in 2007, Collectif Kahraba is a performing arts company comprising artists and technicians from different walks of life who firmly believe that art is a pathway for dialogue and openness. Thanks to a growing network of actors, writers, stage directors, photographers, puppeteers and dancers, brought together by the will to exchange tools and knowledge and to meet the audience, Collectif Kahraba poetically questions the world in which we evolve. With over 18 productions that tour regularly across Lebanon and internationally, Collectif Kahraba initiated “Us, the Moon & The Neighbours” in 2011; a free, multi-disciplinary festival. With 6 editions, the festival managed to position itself as a real platform for collaboration, exchange and encounters amongst audiences and local and international artists. In 2017 Collectif Kahrba takes the artistic direction of Hammana Artist House, a residency space for artists that it co-founded with Robert Eid. With Hammana Artist House, it’s the art of encounter that Collectif Kahraba chooses to put forth as a vehicle to develop the imaginary, curiosity, critical sense, and to contribute, in a shared responsibility, to building a culture of peace.

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Totus in pari cun Collectif Kahraba!

In the month preceding the arrival of the Collectif Kahraba artists, a close-knit group of boys and girls from Perdaxius and the surrounding area led by the artists Carlo Spiga and Matteo Rubbi conceived and created a new puppet show from scratch. The protagonists of an incredible story between science fiction and fantasy were born from clay: The fantastic story of Robit12.

During the workshops the screenplay, scenography and soundtrack were born. The premiere of the show took place on September 26, 2022 at the Perdaxius Social Center.

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Geologia di una fiaba



“Geologia di una fiaba” is a creative project for young audiences conceived of and interpreted by Aurelien Zouki and Éric Deniaud. The piece combines storytelling, dance, and object and sound manipulation. The central element is clay in layered sheets, in piles, in blocks, in bas-relief, modeled live, etc., giving life to figures and spaces. It is from and through this raw material that the two interpreters build the genealogy of fables and their origins. In order to write their own fables, we know that La Fontaine and Marie de France were inspired by Aesop, who was himself inspired by Persian tales, which most certainly came from India, and so on… probably since the continental drift, perhaps before language became so elaborate. The first fable may have even been modeled from clay. Through oral transmission, these simple wisdoms have been entrusted to us from age to age, territory to territory. The ascension of time and crossing of space reminds us that not so long ago, borders were not defined as they are today. The only things, perhaps, still able to easily cross, are our thoughts and our stories.

Amy Sow, artista e attivista (Nouakchott 1977) è la terza artista invitata per Common Places A.i.R.
Primo Vicepresidente del Collectif di giovani artisti visivi mauritani, M-ART, fondatrice di ArtGallé, un centro d’arte situato a Nouakchott che ha come scopo divulgare e promuovere l’arte e l’educazione artistica soprattutto alle fasce che ne sono escluse, bambini e bambine soprattutto.
La passione di Amy Sow risale alla sua infanzia. Da allora si è formata e perfezionata in calligrafia, pittura e fotografia.
Il lavoro di Amy Sow è stato esposto alla biennale di Dakar, al palazzo Chaillot e all’Institut du Monde Arabe di Parigi, al museo di arti contemporanee di Cartagine a Tunisi. Nel 2019 ha partecipato al progetto I giardini possibili, con Cherimus e Casa Emmaus in Sardegna.

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Prima tappa della residenza è stato Monte Sirai un antico sito fenicio-cartaginese. Nelle foto vediamo il tempio di Astarte e Baal con all’orizzonte lo Stabilimento Metallurgico di Portovesme, un ritratto di Amy nel sito con la città di Carbonia sullo sfondo; un porcospino che vive in una delle antiche tombe cartaginesi, Amy sotto un vecchio ulivo piegato dal maestrale, il tramonto sulla spiaggia di Punt’e s’Arena.

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Amy incontra “Is Meurreddas”, un gruppo di autoriflessione nato a Perdaxius e incentrato sulla discriminazione e la violenza di genere.

Nell’ottica di immaginare e costruire nuovi progetti insieme Amy Sow incontra a Iglesias il sindaco di Iglesias Marco Usai e gli assessori Angela Scarpa e Monica Marongiu. Successivamente è la volta di Perdaxius con gli assessori Sebastian Fadda e Alfonso Sanna.

Visita alla galleria di Herny, un tunnel nelle rocce del Sulcis-iglesiente dove abbiamo scoperto il patrimonio minerario della zona.
In questi giorni ci hanno visitato anche i partner del progetto Common Places per un a serie di incontri di scambio metodologico e per condividere i risultati perseguiti dal progetto fino a questo punto.

Negli stessi giorni ci hanno visitato anche i partner del progetto Common Places La Fundició e Prostorož per un a serie di incontri di scambio metodologico e per condividere i risultati perseguiti dal progetto fino a questo punto.

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Performance di Amy Sow al parco pubblico di San Leonardo.
“Deboo” è una parola Pulaar che significa donna. Lo spettacolo parla della lotta delle donne per liberarsi da tutti i fardelli e le costrizioni con cui sono costrette a vivere.
Musiche di: Carlo Spiga @makika2
Foto di: @riccardolocci

Pesaus a contus / كلنا حكايات is part of “On the move! Un teatro in viaggio per il Libano” cooperation project between Cherimus (Sardinia) and Hammana Artist House (Lebanon) financed by the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna.

The project involved eight performing artists based in Lebanon:

Maya Aghniadis, composer e arranger
Sarah Almoneem, performance artist
Patricia Habchy, director
Monà Hallab, soprano
Nivine Kallas, performance artist and director
Tracy Khoueiry, performance artist
Chantal Mailhac, storyteller and musician
Sarah Mashmoushy, performance artist

and two artists based in Sardinia:

Carlo Spiga, visual artist e musician
Sara Deidda, photographer and filmmaker

During an artistic residency at the Hammana Artist House, the artists developed and staged two new performances: “Tarantism”, created and directed by Nivine Kallas and “The longest night of my life”, created and directed by Chantal Mailhac..
Over two intense weeks, artists shared the same spaces, lived in the cozy and welcoming environment of Hammana and activated moments of artistic discussion with the artists of Hammana Artist House, which helped the artists in residence to stage two new performances for the first time.

At the end of the two weeks, the performances had their debut in Hammana with an audience of youg students from the town’s schools. Subsequently the theatre tour continued in Rmeileh, at the “Centre socio éducatif Fratelli” and in Beirut at the Islamic orphanage.

Carlo Spiga collaborated with Nivine Kallas, Sarah Mashmoushy, Sarah Almoneem, and Tracy Khoueiry to create an original score for the performance “Tarantism” using Sardinian traditional and experimental instruments.
Sara Deidda has created a documentary to narrate the project by working closely with the artists, exchanging ideas and engaging with the participants as well as the Hammana staff.

Il documentario “Pesaus a contus / كلنا حكايات was presented for the first time in the Spazio Antas of San Sperate on 27 September 2022.

All the images used on the website are made by Sara Deidda.

“On the move! Un teatro in viaggio per il Libano” also supported the sustainability of the social and artistic initiatives of Hammana Artist House for marginalized communities within Lebanon, in the form of a donation of a powerful rechargeable battery system that will help to run some of the activities that are at ‘present severely hampered by the serious economic and energetic crisis that the country is going through.

Chantal Mailhac and Mona Hallab tell and sing on stage the story of Ba’al, the Phoenician’s “God of the rain, that climbs the clouds and come back with fertility; he lives above the clouds. During his time nature is green, colorful, full of fruits, flowers […]”

The night of the title refers to the winter solstice night, the longest of the year, before days start to be longer again. The tradition contains many points later taken up by Christianity (Jesus’ birth on the solstice and the death/resurrection process). Ba’al later became, as many gods with horns -he is associated with the constellation of Taurus-, one of the enemies of God, one of the ways to represent satan.

This performance wants to revive a story that has deep roots in Lebanese and Levantine history as well as in many places of the Mediterranean Sea, including Sardinia.
In Sardinia the figure of the bull was one of the most widespread in antiquity, and it is the base today for some of the famous masks used for carnival rituals.

Thanks to the histrionic and playful storytelling of Chantal, the voice of Mona, the support of Patricia Habchy for the mise-en-scène and of Maya Aghniadis for the music composition, the legend of Ba’al came back to life and was told and sung in front of the audience of students, children and young adults.

Tarantism is the name of a traditional “magical-religious” music therapy practice once very common in Puglia and in the regions of southern Italy.
The performance by Nivine Kallas, unfolds through a series of scenes narratively centering the human body and its struggle to face present time challenges
As physical narrator and director Nivine Kallas says: “Tarantism is a performance that tackles
an irresistible invitation to move, as a form of expression that can be violent yet therapeutic, now the pain is triggered pushing the body to face it is shadows.”
A complex exchange of glances, a fight, a constant attempt to reconnect, to heal, all through a multifaceted dance, that combine different methods and techniques.
Visual artist and musician Carlo Spiga has developed an unprecedented collaboration with the performers Nivine Kallas, Tracy Khoueiry, Sarah Almoneem, Sarah Mashmoushy and experimented with new ways of using launeddas, trunfa, and throat singing. These three elements are traditional instruments of Sardinian dances. During this residency Carlo Spiga had the chance to build a bridge between “Tarantism” and the Sardinian ritual named “Argia”, connected as well with the bite of a spider (the black widow) and with dance as a therapy practice.
Photographer Sara Deidda is collaborating with the 8 artists in residence as well, thanks to a collaboration with Eja Tv, exploring day by day ways to film the performances and find a way to tell a story through images, rather than merely documenting it.

Sarah Mashmoushy

Sarah Almoneem

Tracy Khoueiry

Nivine Kallas

Okada Buluma (Nairobi, 1982) is a Social Practice Artist.
He is known in Kenya and internationally for the quality of his work on behalf of children and disadvantaged youth. Over the years, Okada has experimented with creative educational methods centred on the needs of children, through the use of games and of playful learning practices.
Cherimus has been collaborating with Okada Buluma since 2014 and together they have realized two major projects funded by the Sardinian Region (in application of the Regional Law of 11 April 1996, n. 19), ‘Ciak! Kibera’ and ‘Carnival! Nairobi.’ The collaboration also led to the creation, in Nairobi, together with Charles Nshimmy, of a wooden statue of Santu Jacu (St James), which was later offered to the community of Perdaxius.

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The residency starts with a visit at Museo archeologico nazionale, Cagliari, through centuries of history and intertwining Mediterranean cultures. Sphinxes and other artifacts found in Sardinia testify to the presence of the cults of Isis and Osiris on the island, while other funerary and quotidian artifacts are very similar to those on display in the museum. The visit continued with the Giants of Mont’e Prama, the sacred models of the nuraghi (ancient Sardinian stone structures), and the beautiful Nuragic bronzes statues.

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Workshop by Okada Buluma and Cherimus with a group of people living in the Casa Emmaus’ facility (Iglesias) from Egypt, Tunisia, Albania and Afghanistan.
Okada invited everyone to write or draw something important to them, a memory, a dream. Stories emerged, sometimes linked to moments of the long journey that brought them to Sardinia, the nostalgia and longing for home. They then transformed these reflections into color and painting, and then a map of all their stories.

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Conference “Orizzonti di cooperazione”, Town Hall, Perdaxius
Okada Buluma talked about his professional experience working with and educating kids who live in the streets of Nairobi: the building of a sense of trust through play, the uplifting of each person’s uniqueness and self expression, perseverance, and patience are the ingredients of a process that brought many children off the streets. After Okada spoke, Emiliana Sabiu & Matteo Rubbi, cofounders of Cherimus, talked about the projects Cherimus has developed with Koinonia Community in Nairobi, in which artists, musicians, and educators worked together in the communities of the children who live in the street to represent and give form to their dreams and their futures. Also present at the meeting were various institutional actors and representatives of local area associations who are interested in activating dialogue on the theme of educational poverty, centering the education and growth of all the components of community education: families, teachers, and educators.

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Workshop in collaboration with Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella association, Domusnovas.
Okada, alongside Cherimus, held a workshop for a group of children, exploring the theme of tales and stories as the roots of one’s identity both as individuals and as a community.
Some of the stories centered on the territory of Domusnovas, its caves, its mines, and its mountains. Others were classic fairy tales, and still others tales invented for the workshop. At the end of their time together, these stories, translated into a storyboard of drawings, were lined up and recombined by the children, giving life to a new story. Stories are a living language: they are games; they are the transmission and questioning of knowledge. Our stories grow with us.

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Visiting Barrancu Mannu, one of the most beautiful and magical archaeological and natural sites in Sulcis. Located near Santadi, the site houses a Tomba dei giganti and other remains from ancient times.

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For Easter Saturday, Okada Buluma, Emilia Brunoro and Fiammetta Caime worked together to prepare Chapati, a fried unleavened bread very popular in Kenya. As an accompaniment to this bread, ricotta was prepared with excellent thistle honey produced in Perdaxius, Sulcis cheeses and legumes.

Some images of the playful workshop that closed the week of Okada Buluma’s residency. The kids of Perdaxius gifted us with this explosion of colors, creating the shell of an alien dinosaur egg made of their drawings, which was shown to the community at the Park of San Leonardo.
Thank you Comune di Perdaxius for making this possible!

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