<B>Kit GRAAS</B>

This manager of a guest house in Flic-en-Flac has always been attracted by both artistic and scientific issues. But not in a bookish way. Through her career in audiovisual journalism and painting, she has tried to explore her environment and learn from her observations.

A familiar gecko, giving life to a wall and a will to the sky, a wild wave, gathering strength to travel over the blue green depths, an ailing bird, finding its way over red glowing tropical trees. Kit Graas’ paintings are like a visiting card : their colours and open dimensions are a challenge to conventional ideas of beauty.

“I am alive and eager to learn.” Kit Graas was born in Luxemburg. One admirer actually described her as a perfect example of a “graceful Luxemburg maiden”, a sweet compliment that should not be misinterpreted. For Kit, a painter’s daughter, has a strength of personality and a depth of intelligence all of her own.

A national sailing champion during her teenage years, a leading journalist and TV producer at RTL television, she also ran art galleries in Paris and was press officer to ex-Education minister, Kadress Pillay. She lived at a frantic pace, moving from France to Germany, Hong Kong to the Middle East. Though she has travelled so much, she seems to know Mauritius best of all.

“I wanted to understand my environment and observed all the vegetation and fauna that I could on the island.” In fact, she had to really search for them in spots left untouched by man. When, in the early 1990s, she landed in Mauritius, she realized that the island was not the wild place totally remote from western civilization she had dreamt of. “European style development is everywhere.” But the stories told by animals and trees drew her to a world many Mauritians don’t even care about.

“People should think twice about their priorities. Nature is an invaluable ressource Mauritians should preserve it better. In Flic-en-Flac, for instance, too many of the corals, even those at a distance from the shore, have just been destroyed by people walking on them”. She, who tries to grasp the whole field of artisitic creation, seems to regret that culture is viewed in her country of adoption more as a link to the past than as a powerful tool for future development. And that, alongside racism and superstition has many supporters here.

But when did she become aware of Mauritius ? “It was during my studies in journalism, in Paris, when I met Sarita Boodhoo. There was a tourist poster in her small student’s room. When I imagined Mauritius, I believed it was just like that.” Obviously this postcard representation was not totally faithful. However, Kit found here something that she had been eagerly seeking when she left the unbearable stress of her work in Europe : “Time”!

And, at the guest house she manages in Flic-en-Flac, Kit has time to devote to her passion for cooking. “A dish can be prepared and presented as a work of art.” So that the pleasure of the palate is as great as that of the eye. Kit’s cooking can be as unexpected, as delightful as the encounter itself. And Kit likes sharing. As she is a writer, the subject of her next book makes one’s mouth water : it will be dedicated to all kinds of local edible plants!