In the wake of the Arab Spring, two intrepid women set out to experience and document everyday life in North Africa and the Near East, some of the most rapidly evolvingregions in the world.
Their aim? To break down inter-cultural prejudice by bringing into focus the personal lives and stories of individuals in these areas, adding a new layer of information to the picture generally portrayed in the mainstream media.
In March, Anne-Laure Carruth and Lucy Engleheart will leave their jobs and secure lives behind them to drive their vintage Land Rover into the unknown.
Logistically, their challenge is impressive. Circumnavigating the Mediterranean with five months on the road they will have to contend with the rapidly evolving cultural and political situations of a vast and diverse region, learning a language with a new script and complex regional variations. They must become comfortable with unfamiliar environments, both physical and bureaucratic, in a society that is traditionally seen as male dominated. Pitting their wits against the sand and extreme heat of the desert, they will drive long distances over hugely varied terrain in a vintage Series IIA Land Rover that they will repair and maintain themselves, relying on only their own experience and ingenuity to
get out of trouble. Their trip will be unpredictable and how they adapt to changing circumstances is key.
Linked by a love of maps, Anne-Laure and Lucy will use their journey to create their own pictorial and topological maps through the stories they encounter, recording the human face of the region. Their maps will interweave the stories of the people they meet with their own, offering an original and per sonal narrative of experiences to sit alongside existing media perspectives.
Throughout their expedition they will gather stories of everyday life in North Africa and the Near East which will form the backbone of their maps. They will regularly upload glimpses of daily life on the road in the form of writing, sketching and photographs. On their return they will refine their data into a series of engaging, beautiful, even experimental maps that characterise their journey, culminating in a UK exhibition of their work and speaking tour.
Their undertaking is ambitious but they are determined individuals and seasoned travellers, used to pushing themselves to the limits and operating in challenging environments. Lucy is an experienced expedition leader, overland truck driver and bush mechanic who was one of the first team to raft the unnavigated Rio Grande in Bolivia with the Scientific Exploration Society. Multilingual Anne-Laure trained in architecture and is also a published artist. She co-founded the Exhibition Collective, aimed
at building a network of artists and organising creative workshops, and was ship’s artist on a trans-Atlantic voyage on the tall ship Tenacious.
Anne-Laure and Lucy have worked hard to build a support network of links and collaborations allowing them to benefit from the experience of others. They maintain that the strength of their expedition
lies in their ability to combine the knowledge that they have with their capacity to gain access to the knowledge that they don’t have.
They hope their adventures will inspire people to discover more about North Africa and the Near East and to encourage others to pursue their own projects, expeditions and dreams. Their progress will be documented via Facebook, Twitter and at www.shifting-sands.com
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