Ever since I was a young girl I feel connected with horses. I lost this connection after a riding accident in 1999, when I broke two bones in my lower back. When I started my Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training in 2018, I felt more and more reconnected with my inner self and the horses came back into my life. I started riding again, took care of someone else’s horse, and eventually bought my American Paint horse Orlando. Now I am working as an Equine Assisted Coach ~ combining my passion for horses with Kundalini Yoga: www.orlandocoaching.nl.
Happy to be presenting Rites des passages at OH Gallery in Dakar, at Partcours art event in December. Rites des Passages is a multi-media installation in which I interweave the works Voyage à Dakar and Heaven Beneath Their Feet. I explore concepts about motherhood, female leadership, and spirituality.
I traveled with my son Noah Saliou from the Netherlands right across Europe and North Africa to Senegal – to unite him with his African heritage. It was a journey with far-reaching ramifications – for myself as well as for him. At the end of the journey, a whole new world opens up for us. This new world is the lingering urge in me, to explore the spiritual aspect of my son’s heritage, an aspect that is omnipresent everywhere in Senegal.
My urge to dig deeper into this particular aspect of my child’s heritage, is so strong, that I decide to act on it. I decide to explore the role of motherhood and women’s leadership in Senegal.
I am presenting a new photo series on Senegalese female fighters and a video on a pilgrimage I made with 4 Senegalese women to Porokhane to honour Mame Diara: the woman who embodies motherhood and women’s leadership. Mame Diara is one of many in a long chain of women leaders who impacted and continue to influence the course of Senegalese history: from the freedom fighters against the French colonial regime such as the fierce Aline Sitoe Diatta.
The show “Djigeenu Diambaar” is in collaboration with Senegalese painter Camara Gueye and to be seen at the Residency of the Dutch Embassy, Avenue des Ambassadeurs, Corniche Ouest, Dakar: 19-24 Mai, 10-17h. Cocktail with a performance by Sister LB, Tuesday 24 Mai, 18-20h.
Voyage à Dakar will be on show in De Balie, at the Afropean Evening at April 30. With sounds, words, images and music from artists, musicians and writers Johnny Pitts, Vamba Sherif, Tarona, Lisette Ma Neza, Pape Seck, Orville Breeveld, Absa Sisokko and Giovanni Pisas we will immerse ourselves in “Black Europe”.
I edited a new 12 minutes video on the most magic moments of Voyage à Dakar. Vamba Sherif wrote an essay inspired by the experience of the bicultural child and he wil recite this piece.
Starting point of this evening programme is the book Afropean: Notes from Black Europe by Johnny Pitts who traveled the continent, trying to find what it means to be black in today’s Europe.
I am super happy that TOUKI – Voyage à Dakar will be on show in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam: in the Best Dutch Book Designs 2020 exhibition from September 25 – October 30.
Voyage à Dakar is on show in CBK Zuidoost till June 12, as part of the group show Rooted/Uprooted (curated by Renske de Jong).
I invited Senegalese visual artist and actor Camara Gueye to comment on the subject of travel, migration, and the famous Senegalese children’s book The adventures of Leuk de Haas. The first Senegalese President Senghor, a philosopher and Pan-Africanist, wrote the book. Leuk de Haas is an ode to the intelligence of the child (Childhood Kingdom) and the African continent.
Rooted/Uprooted is a group show with a.o. Wes Mapes, Jasir Linger, Tja Ling Hu, Maja Irene Bolier.
I am super happy that my book TOUKI – Voyage à Dakar, is selected as one of the thirty-three Best Dutch Book Designs 2020. A total of 267 entries were assessed for their distinctive qualities by a panel of experts looking for outstanding work in such areas as content, design, picture editing, typography, choice of materials, printing and binding.
The thirty-three books selected can be seen in an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam later this year, coinciding with the publication of this year’s catalogue.
