The Moroccan-Austrian artist, Malika Sqalli, presents in writing and in images, the first part of the journey she lived all along the parallele 34, From the United States to Morocco.

In 2010, when she first visited Los Angeles, Malika found that for all the cultural differences between her home town, Rabat, Morocco, and L.A, there were also great commonalities.  Seeking to find out why, she learned that both places sit astride the 34 parallel North. Seized by the unlikelihood, even romance of the idea, she decided to explore and photograph the human sites and sights along that imaginary demarcation line around the globe in order to see and share what she could learn about the similarities and differences in human cultures.

For Malika this is not just a project about the beauty of the places along the parallels, but an exploration undertaken with a camera and fueled by her “child’s eye” view of the world, a view which works against parochialism and in favor of cultural globalization.

Latitude 34

“One day in 2010 when I was spending time in Los Angeles, I realized I was at 34.02 º latitude. This is the same latitude as the city of my birth – Rabat, Morocco. 34 is also the amount of years I have been on this planet. Within a week I was on the road. I decided to trace as if i was a pen the latitude 34 around the globe. I happen to have a camera.
I wanted to find a way of looking at the ordinary in a unique way. I want to lend a bit of poetry to that which is mundane. The 34 became a thread that speaks of people, similarities and differences as well as functioning as a humanistic bridge making friends out of strangers, linking disparates.”
Malika Sqalli

Documentation
• Leaflet of the exhibition
• Exhibition map

Press
• “Malika Sqalli expose Latitude 34” in Le Soir Echos
• “Malika Sqalli expose ses photographies à l’Espace Expressions de la Fondation CDG” in Blanee