1
Bangkok
A meeting, then a shared road
Everything begins with a meeting in an airport, then with the decision to keep moving together. Long before the name Mélanzé, there is already a taste for passage, movement and unexpected affinities.
Mélanzé
About
A story of roads, family and rootedness
Mélanzé grew out of a nomadic trajectory, a life of creation in motion and the decision to let all of that take shape in a real place on Senegal's Petite-Côte.
Founders
Joan Bastide & Jacqueline Ahmed
Trajectory
20 years across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe
Base
Thiafoura, between Senegal and France
Before the structure
Before becoming an organization, it was already a way of living
Mélanzé did not come out of a business plan. It formed along roads, trades, encounters, children, books, kitchens, improvised studios and projects carried in very different contexts.
For a long time, all of this moved in dispersed form. Then came the desire for a place where those gestures could finally answer one another: host, write, record, work with others and make room for a fuller life.
For a long time, the project was looking less for a showcase than for a place where everything could finally hold together.
What the name tells
Mélanzé already says something about the method
The name comes from Réunion Creole. We chose it because it speaks of mixture, passage and the links woven between people, disciplines and landscapes. Mélanzé remains a space that connects, welcomes and keeps searching.
Host
Around a table, in a room, a workshop or a studio, Mélanzé often begins by opening space and making room for others.
Connect
From books to music, from artists to researchers, from neighbors to visitors, from ideas to the ground. The project holds through the links it creates.
Make things last
Build slowly, plant, publish, record, transmit. Not to create noise, but to leave traces that are useful, shareable and alive.
The story in four movements
How Mélanzé took shape
The story did not move in a straight line. It formed through layering, experiments, movement and then the decision to build something lasting in Thiafoura.
2
Nomadic years
Living and creating in motion
Restaurants, retreats, recordings, writing, field projects, children growing up across several countries. For years, the project exists without yet belonging to one place.
3
Need for a place
Gathering what had been scattered
After so much movement, one intuition becomes clear: there must be a place where hosting, writing, recording, cooking, transmitting and building projects can finally answer one another.
4
Thiafoura
Putting down roots without closing in
The Petite-Côte offers that foothold. Mélanzé builds a real place there, a rhythm, a lived base. But grounding does not mean narrowing the horizon: projects still travel where they need to.
In daily life
Today, Mélanzé holds together family life, a publishing hut, a label, a hosting place, field projects and a slower, more relational way of inhabiting.
A place, but not only
Thiafoura is a living base, not a frontier
The site makes it possible to host residencies, write, record, receive groups and work over time. But Mélanzé does not reduce itself to one address: the structure still carries projects elsewhere, with other partners and in other contexts.
A foothold solid enough to host, supple enough to keep moving.
The founders
Two sensibilities, one shared gesture
Mélanzé also holds through the complementarity of two presences: one more oriented toward writing, music and the thinking of forms, the other toward hosting, care and the quality of daily life.
Writing, music, vision
Joan Bastide
Writer, musician and trained geographer, Joan carries much of Mélanzé's intellectual and artistic direction. He links books, writing, research projects and the musical life of the place.
Hosting, care, presence
Jacqueline Ahmed
Geographer, yoga teacher, restaurateur and retreat organizer, Jacqueline gives the project its rhythm of welcome, care and grounded attention. She anchors Mélanzé in a very practical way of taking care.
Mélanzé takes the shape of a living place, rooted in red earth, where roads, family, creation and care for the living keep moving together.
Take part in Mélanzé
The place already exists. You can help open it wider, strengthen it and support what comes next.
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