São Paulo – Mauricio Natel is a lawyer. Silvia, his wife, works in the advertising industry. However, approximately two years ago, the couple, which works in the city of Curitiba, became photographers to capture images of seldom explored landscapes in Morocco. In a trip to the Arab African country, they went to large cities such as Marrakech, Fez, visited the Atlas Mountains, and took an eight-day-long jeep tour of the country’s interior. The adventure lasted twenty days and now is the theme of an exhibition at the Folha Seca Bar, in the Água Verde neighbourhood of Curitiba.
The initiative arose out of the couple’s desire to get to know daily life in a Muslim country. Mauricio, who is studying to become a diplomat in Brazil, claims that he had always wanted to become acquainted with other cultures. “I made a list of some countries and handed my wife a mini-route. The list also included Tunisia and Syria. She picked Morocco,” he says. In order to escape the conventional tours, the couple was helped by a British agency that specializes in non-conventional trips, which appointed a guide.
“Apart from Portuguese, I only speak French, and in the interior of Morocco it is difficult to communicate in French, because in some places the people only speak Arabic,” he claims. For this reason, the couple hired a guide, who also drove the jeep. The trip, especially across the interior, was filled with different landscapes. “We focused on natural beauty. We saw several canyons, some of them among Africa’s largest, passes between mountains, mountain-side villages, we would go to several places each day,” he says. In some valleys and more isolated places, inhabited only by groups of shepherds, the couple walked, aided by the locals.
“The people in Morocco are completely hospitable, most are willing to help,” he says. Even though the country has a different culture, Mauricio claims to have noticed similarities with Brazil. “Father-and-son relationships are very much like our own, the children are treated with much love. Their faith is very strong, but I also spoke to people who were much less fanatical than some in Brazil,” says the lawyer. Mauricio also says that he was also able to witness similarities in the architecture, which he describes as a heritage brought to Brazil due to the Arab domain in the Iberian Peninsula.
The photographic exhibition, entitled “Morocco,” started on April 19th and will continue until May 29th. It remains open to the public from Monday to Friday, from 05:00 pm to 02:00 am, and on Saturdays, from 12:30 pm to 02:00 am at the Folha Seca Bar. The couple has not scheduled another exhibition for the photos after the one underway. This is Mauricio’s first exhibition, but it is already the second one for Silvia, who has already put together a photographic exhibition on Peru, featuring photos taken by herself.
Service:
Morocco Exhibition
Date: up until May 29th
Place: Folha Seca Bar, Petit Carneiro street , 394 – Água Verde – Curitiba – Paraná
Time: Mondays until Fridays, from 05:00 pm to 02:00 am, and on Saturdays from 12:30 pm to 02:00 am.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
