An atypical and socially-aware artist, Titouan Lamazou draws a vibrant picture of the world, through paintings and photographs.
After a short stint at the Beaux-Arts, he set sail at the age of 18 years. It was thanks to his voyages that he produced his first works in 1982. His meeting with Éric Tabarly led him to continue his maritime path until he won the inaugural Vendée Globe in 1990.
Throughout these years, Titouan Lamazou fine-tuned his artistic practice. His voyages would become the subjects of numerous publications (Editions Gallimard) and exhibitions (for example, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée de l’Homme, Fondation Cartier).
For seven years, from 2001 to 2007, Titouan Lamazou travelled the five continents to meet women at the dawn of the 21st century. This homage to beauty has metamorphosed, in the course of his voyages, into a petition denouncing the many faces of misogyny in this world.
UNESCO found an affinity with the humanist dimension of his values and the cultural diversity that characterizes his approach; on this basis, the organization appointed Titouan a UNESCO Artist for Peace.
In 2012, he rediscovered Aïcha, a Malian friend and muse, in a refugee camp in Burkina Faso. This led him on a new voyage to find his old acquaintances in Timbuktu, going from refugee camp to refugee camp. His journey to Mali’s borders with Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, lasted for four years, and resulted in a series of portraits gathered in the work Retour à Tombouctou, published in 2015 by Gallimard.
In 2016, Titouan published Œuvres vagabondes, which retraces his artistic path via an interview with Jean de Loisy, director of the Palais de Tokyo.
Today, Titouan is devoting himself entirely to the fulfillment of his old Floating Studio dream.
1955
Birth in Casablanca.
1967
Adolescence in Tunisia.
Tunisia
1971-1974
Studied drawing with painter and navigator Yvon Le Corre at high school.
Attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, then in Aix-en Provence.
France
1976-1979
World tour on board Éric Tabarly’s Pen Duick VI.
Les Goélettes d’Amérique sketchbooks, from the northeast coast of the USA and Canada.
Polynesia (navigations during the creation of the Guide de manœuvre)
Photograph Marc Pinta
1982-1983
One-year stay in a Berber village in Morocco’s High Atlas.
1985-1991
Ocean races on board the Écureuil d’Aquitaine I and II.
- Winner of the Cape Town-Sydney (1986)
- 2nd in the BOC Challenge (1986-1987)
- Winner of the Québec-St Malo (1988)
- Winner of the Vendée Globe (1989-1990)
- Winner of the Route du Rhum (1990)
- Named Ocean-Racing World Champion
Photograph Denis Gliksman, Libération
1992-1993
Sets up the Jules Verne Trophy with Florence Arthaud.
Construction of the world’s largest monohull in carbon, the Tag Heuer, a 43-meter schooner.
The Tag Heuer sinks in the following year.
Venice
1994-2001
Permanent return to his paintbrushes.
Voyages across the globe that will result in his producing Carnets de Voyage 1 (1998) and Carnets de voyage 2 (2000) (the Caribbean, Morocco, Peru, Egypt, Cuba, Greece, Benin, Japan, Haiti, Mali, Colombia, Indonesia, Patagonia and Democratic Republic of Congo).
Stint in Paris and Brussels with the singer Renaud to produce the book Boucan d’enfer (2002).
2001-2007
Six years of voyages on the five continents, meeting women from all over the world for his major project Zoé-Zoé, Femmes du monde.
Photograph Didier Léger
2003
Appointment as UNESCO Artist for Peace.
Appointment as Official Painter and Writer of the French Marine.
2006
Becomes patron of the association Lysistrata supporting the defense of women’s rights worldwide.
© Photo Bruno Pellarin
2008-2011
Voyages to the Horn of Africa and the Grand Lakes region, leading to the publication of Ténèbres au paradis (2011), an account of his encounters with exiled women, war refugees or women displaced by internal conflicts.
2012-2015
Journeys to meet exiled families in refugee camps in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Mali, which form the basis of Retour à Tombouctou (2015).
Photograph Bruno Pellarin
2016
Development of the Bateau-atelier (Floating studio) project.
2017-2018
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© Gwenaël Le Bras
2020-2021
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© Zoé Lamazou
2022
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