About

My personal artistic practice lives in the spaces between tongues — in exophony, literature written away from the language one was born into.

Whereabouts

I host a cultural space and art gallery called Studio Fremdeling. With a long history of running an art residency in Saint-Louis, Senegal, I also co-host, since 2018, an artists’ residency program a couple of times a year in Kristinestad, Finland.

What I Work On

My research focuses on the exilic experience, and on the lives of people in urban and transit spaces. As far as literature goes, I am drawn mostly, but not exclusively, to the work of Southern writers.

Where to Find My Work

Social media is not my cup of tea, so you will not find me there. Instead, when time allows, I share personal work the slow way: through an occasional exhibition, or in the form of a book, or conversations over a coffee, or through short chronicles in my blog. I work slowly. This is not a shortcoming but a method that suits me best.

What else?

I have solid experience designing and teaching integration training courses that align with the Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration (Kotoutumislaki), which obliges municipalities to promote integration, and to offer all immigrants low-threshold guidance and basic information about Finnish society. Under the reformed Act (Koto24, effective 2026), this municipal responsibility is growing. I can help you meet it. I teach in Arabic, English and French.