Naturalist illustrator, stylist, sailor on Breton tuna boats, journalist under a male pseudonym at the Paris Stock Exchange… Odette du Puigaudeau led many lives before becoming, with no other school than fieldwork, one of the keenest observers of the nomadic cultures of the Sahara. October 3, 2026 to March 7, 2027The Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech museum (mYSLm) is dedicating an exhibition to her and finally bringing this free woman, who has remained unjustly unknown, out of the shadows.
A life against the current
Born in 1894 in Saint-Nazaire, the daughter of Ferdinand du Puigaudeau, a painter of the Pont-Aven school, Odette grew up overlooking the Atlantic. Moving to Paris in 1920, she worked successively as a scientific illustrator, a stage costume designer, and a stylist for Jeanne Lanvin. But the sea called her back: in 1928, a rare feat for a woman, she obtained her professional seaman's book and went to sea on tuna boats.
In 1931, she met the journalist and painter Marion Sénones, who would henceforth share all her travels. On November 28, 1933, the two women left Douarnenez aboard a lobster boat, bound for Mauritania, without any official mission, at their own expense and risk. This first voyage determined everything: for more than twenty-five years, they would travel the land. In 1961, they settled in Rabat, where they would live until the end of their lives.
A geography of sand and salt
Her territory extends from the Atlantic coast of Mauritania to the libraries of Chinguetti, from the ochre alleyways of Oualata to Timbuktu. Southern Morocco holds a special place in her work: Tiznit, the Tamanart valley, Foum el Hassan, whose rock engravings she patiently records.
Thousands of kilometers on camelback, until, in the winter of 1937, she followed the azalaï, the great caravan that twice a year linked Timbuktu to the salt mines of Taoudéni. In total, five years of complete immersion among the nomadic communities, whose daily life she shared and whose every detail she recorded: the wool tent (khaymat), the saddles and chests, the silver jewelry, the clay dolls of Oualata, the women's hairstyles.
His stories (Barefoot across Mauritania, The Great Date Fair, Desert Salt) made her known to the general public. She left behind eight books, countless articles, and a seminal treatise on ethnology devoted to the Moorish people, Arts and customs of the Moors.
What you will discover in the exhibition
- More than 200 works and documents: photographs, drawings, watercolors, original plates, manuscripts, objects
- Radio archives to listen to along the way
- Excerpts from documentary films, including a testimony from the naturalist Théodore Monod and a griot song written for Odette
- A nomadic tent erected in the heart of the route
- Pieces from the collections of the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, the Jardin Majorelle Foundation, and private collections
The journey follows three chronological chapters: From Saint-Nazaire to Paris (1894-1934), On the Road to the Deserts (1934-1961) et Rabat, last home port (1961-1991).
Who is behind the exhibition?
- Curator Hayate Machache, head of collections at the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts and the mYSLm, and Monique Vérité, biographer of Odette du Puigaudeau
- Scenography Jasmin Oezcebi, architect and scenographer at the Centre Pompidou, who previously designed the scenography for the Bert Flint and Théophile-Jean Delaye exhibitions at the mYSLm
The first exhibition dedicated to the adventurer in Morocco, the country she chose and never left, it extends the series of great witnesses to the history, geography and anthropology of Morocco and the Sahara in the 20th century.
Practical information
- From Saturday, October 3, 2026 to Sunday, March 7, 2027
- Temporary gallery, Yves Saint Laurent Museum Marrakech, rue Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech
- Open every day except Wednesday, from 10am to 18pm (last entry at 17:30pm)
About the Yves Saint Laurent Museum Marrakech
Inaugurated in the fall of 2017 near the Majorelle Garden, the mYSLm is a vibrant cultural center, equipped with exhibition spaces, a research library and the Pierre Bergé Auditorium, with a program combining cinema, music, literature and international conferences.
