Zellidja aventure

The Zellidja Foundation, under the aegis of the Foundation de France, and with the support of the national Education, provided the distribution and financing of Zellidja travel grants. The role of the Zellidja Association is top encourage young people to travel with a specific aim and objective to see, discover and understand the world where we are living.

Zellidja Travel scholarships are awarded to young people aged 16-20 years, who developed personal travel plans with a limited budget as well as having a research theme in a their desired country.

The members of Zellidja association have to travel alone and make a research report. This way of travelling allows the member to really understand the country where they are travelling.

After two years travelling with the Zellidja Foundation they awarded me the Jean Walter prize for the quality of my travelling books.

Now I work for this association that has had a great influence on my way I travel. I continue to travel alone with a research theme and with each new trip my knowledge and understanding expands.

Zellidja ceremonial book
Every year, the Zellidja foundation organises an award for the quality of travel reports. In 2015, I created for them the ceremonial book.

Thashiling monastery

Personnal project - Three weeks - March - april 2014

I particularly enjoy this mode of travel because I find that travelling with a research topic leads to another perception of the country. I was no longer a contemplative but active traveler: I tried to understand a culture, using one of its particularities as an angle of attack. This research had a strong impact on my trajectory and led me to meet people I would otherwise never have encountered.

I wrote «Thashilin Monastery» during my stay in a Tibetan monastery in Nepal. It is a picture of the relationships between the monks which inhabit the monastery and of their daily life. I strove to understand the human and social mechanisms behind this microcosm.

Drawing language

Personnal project - Six month March - September 2014

Drawing is an incredible means of meeting and understanding strangers, of bringing people together. With a drawing, the language barrier evaporates. During my trip, I encouraged the people I met to draw something in my notebooks: through their artistry, I caught a glimpse of their daily life, their dreams... This book gathers and analyses these drawings, their varied styles and subjects representative of culture from one country to another.

Bamboo handicrafts

During my trip in Vietnam, I chose to study traditional bamboo craftsmanship, a promising material.
I travelled Vietnam looking for different creative tech- niques which I then tried to understand and learn: bamboo treatment, fiber extraction, cutting, drilling, weaving and other manipulations. I have visited factories, furniture workshop and artists’ studios which all used bamboo in order to grasp this material’s place in Vietnamese culture. I had the chance to observe the fabrication of bamboo kites, elements of furniture, ships, to learn how to make paper from its fiber, build a scaffold. I gathered all of my recollections in an illustrated book.

Ethnographic research about water in Asia

Personnal project - Six month - March - September 2014

I took this trip as an opportunity to study the place of water in Asia. How does the layout of a village reflect the position of water sources? Why is water a sacred vessel in religious practices ? Why is the place of the Ganges river so important in funeral processions?

The results of this research were collated in an illustrated book which received the Zellidja foundation Jean Walter prize.

Travel memories

Three short stories inspired by my trips that illustrate how beliefs can influence the trajectory of a man.

- Le garçon qui voulait être un arbre
- L'homme du toit du bus
- La femme qu'il ne fallait pas toucher