São Paulo – Brazilian Radji Schucman presents in Florianópolis, capital of Santa Catarina state, pictures that shed a different light on daily life in five countries, with Morocco among them. The artist’s exhibition, Topografia da Alma (Topography of the Soul, in a direct translation), opens this Thursday (12th) and will continue until April 17th at Badesc Cultural Foundation.
Schucman put on display 40 pictures taken in Brazil, Germany, France, Turkey and Morocco between 2011 and 2013. In this time, he travelled the countries and shot with the intention of capturing what is not easily noticed in the day-to-day, a look over the contrasts. One of the pictures in Morocco, for instance, show traditional musicians singing in a town square, also traditional, over a Mickey Mouse towel.
The images of the exhibition are all part of a homonymous book by the Brazilian. Schucman isn’t a professional photographer and took all the pictures with his mobile phone.
The Brazilian started the trip in Europe, came back to Brazil, went to Morocco, to Europe again and then to Turkey. His time in Moroccan territory was in 2013, in April, and lasted two weeks. Schucman says that he chose the country because he wanted a different place. “For us, it’s interesting”, he says.
One of the differences that captured Schucman’s attention was the little to no presence of alcohol in daily life. “Then you realize how our lives (in Brazil) revolve a lot around going out and having a drink. They get together to have mint tea and smoke”, he tells. He visited the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes, Fez and Marrakesh.
Among his observations is the fact that, just like Brazil, Morocco is not a rich country and there’s a price hike in services when the customer is a tourist. “But everything is so cheap that even little rip-offs doesn’t change that”, says Schucman about local prices. The absence of violence, the existence of a king and the calls for the Muslim prayers are facts that stick in the traveller’s memory.
Schucman currently works with T-shirt prints. At the time, he shut down the business for a time. Before that, until he was 25 years old, he worked in some other fields, among them advertising. The artist was born in India, in a spiritual community, where his parents lived for a while. They came back to Brazil when he was a 1 month-old baby. He lived in São Paulo until 13 and since then divided his time between the capitals of São Paulo and Santa Catarina states.
The Brazilian took the trip with his own resources. “I sold everything I had”, he says, mentioning a share in a business and a computer, among other belongings. He travelled around through train and bike.
Service:
Photo Exhibition Topografia da Alma (Topography of the Soul)
By Radji Schucman
From March 12th to April 17th, 2015
From Monday to Friday, noon to 7 PM
Espaço 2 of Badesc Cultural Foundation
Rua Visconde de Ouro Preto, 216 – Centro – Florianópolis – SC
Phone: (48) 3224-8846
Free admission
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
