“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.