GRÜNENWALDT martha

Born in the Walloon Brabant, Martha Grünenwaldt spent her childhood playing the violin to accompany her father, a traveling musician, and hardly attended school. At twenty-three she married a musician and worked in a factory until the birth of her daughter. After four years of marriage, she left home with her child and started travelling, playing the violin at sidewalk cafes. But in 1940, her husband got the custody of their daughter. Martha Grünenwaldt was a domestic servant in a castle, where she was not allowed to play the violin. In 1968, her daughter asked her to move in with her. It is only when she turned seventy-one years that she started to draw.

4 minutes . Digital Beta . French, English . Edit / Adela Spaljova . Image Treatment / Jan Cerny c/o Studio Pokrok . Sound Treatment / Petr Cechak c/o Studio Pokrok . Executive Production / Barbara Safarova . Production abcd 2007

ABDELARRAZZAK aouam

1956 . khouribga . morocco

Aouam Abdellarrazzak, nicknamed Ralhi (“elder brother”), was born in a mining town south of Casablanca. He originally did truck maintenance for a print shop, but the business went bankrupt. His marriage fell apart, and on top of it he landed in prison for involuntary manslaughter, which sent him into deep depression and resulted in his drug addiction. With the help of his older sister, he managed to control his addiction and found a precarious equilibrium in drawing. His work depicts hybrid characters in which plant and animal shapes are intertwined with human faces. Abdellarrazzak long viewed his art as nothing more than a meaningless pastime and even threw some of his drawings away.