CelineSianiDjiakoua

Judith Mackrell guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 May 2011 21.30 Fears and fantasies … Un Peu de Tendresse Bordel de Merde! Photograph: Dave St-Pierre When Sally Marie was told she had to strip off in the name of contemporary dance, she was happy to oblige – in theory, anyway. The British dancer had been cast in Dear Body, a 2009 work by Luca Silvestrini that satirised the hard dieting, gym-bound madness of body beautiful obsessives. Marie approved of the work's politics, which she felt applied to her own profession, too. "I'd been arguing for ages that we needed a greater variety of bodies and ages in dance," says Marie, who readily admits to being a stone heavier and a decade older than most of the other dancers. "It felt like an important statement to be on stage showing my tits." But in practice, when it came to getting naked, Marie was petrified. "When you're in a sauna, it feels completely natural. But on stage, you're really exposed....

“I’ve been collecting old photographs for a long time. A few years ago I was doing ink drawings with them and out of curiosity I stitched into one. I work a lot with threads and hand stitching, and the link to photography was a natural progression. I put tracing paper over the photo and draw on the face until it develops. Sometimes the image comes straight away, suggested by a detail on a dress or in the background, but with the majority of them I spend a lot of time drawing. Once the drawing is done, I pierce the photo with a set of needle-like tools I invented and take the paper away; the holes are obsessively paced at the same distance to convey an idea of geometry. When I begin the stitching something else happens, drawing will never do what thread will – the light changes, and at some points you can lose the face, and at others you can still see under it.” Link

for some more of my drawings, click here.

Transculturalsim promotes openness of cultures to each other. Transculture is a way for each individual to overcome determinations of his or her's own culture. To leave on the borders of one's culture, to be beyond the limitations and confines of one's cultural identity. Mikhail Epstein VIDEO

Comparing Mongolian and Russian ... and adding a bit of Latin ... German Translating into Tcheck Tcheck Dutsch

What is the most important place in your life ? What is the most important date in your life ? What is the most important person in your life ? What is the most important object in your life ? What do you love ?

Last Saturday I went to the Language Cafe for the 2nd time and I took some of my "What do you love ?" bits and bobs with me. The Language Cafe is an amazing social gathering of people from all around the world who wish to teach or/and learn other languages. Some people can speak up to 4 languages and more and the switch from one to the other : it's just crazy to watch and listen. I can only do that with English and French but I have started to remember a bit of German and I am hoping to learn a bit of Spanish or even better, Brazilian Portuguese : my dream ever, to sing Gilberto Gil's songs ! The Language Cafe is a partnership between Culturebox , The Refugee Forum and Nottingham City Libraries.

Getting inspiration from my last drawings, I am going back to making collages, which I hadn't done for more than 10 years.