"Touch the Sky" Sculpture

Donia Maaoui was born in Brussels (Belgium) in 1967, her mother Belgian and father Tunisian. At the age of seven her family left Tunisia to settle in Brussels. Every year, during the summer break from school, Donia would fly back on her own to Carthage to visit her Tunisian family. At 17, alongside her studies, she became a runway model for some of the greatest names in high fashion. In 1993 she earned her degree in Architecture in Brussels. She worked in Tunisi and Brussels, where she met Michel Boucquillon, her future husband, architect and designer of the European Parliament in Brussels. Donia becomes his partner and counsellor. In 2000 the couple moved to Santa Margherita Ligure in Italy with their daughter Uma. Two years later their second daughter Noa was born. Donia begins to paint and create sculpture. In 2004 the family moves to Lucca, Tuscany where they discover an abandoned structure in the hills overlooking the town, which becomes “Casa Boucquillon”, now their home and studio. In 2015, Casa Bouquillon receives the international "Expo Stone Award” "I am deeply European in my way of life. But Tunisia is in my heart. Very soon my roots will be evident in my work. My theme fights all forms of oppression and research of individual freedom. I would like to launch a message of hope and reflection through a character I created and called Lola."