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Kif, a new book and exhibition by photographer Seba Kurtis, tells the story of Dodo, and Argentinian one-time drugs mule in North Africa. A close friend of the artists, Dodo died in 2009. Kif is Seba Kurtis' memorial to his friend.
Seba and Dodo became close sharing a flat as illegal immigrants in Tenerife. The friends took separate paths – Kurtis marrying and moving to the UK to follow his career as a photographer, while Dodo, after a period working in construction followed by a one-off fund-raising expedition to Morocco as a drug mule, died young and alone in Barcelona.
When the pair last met, Dodo was rhapsodised about Chefchaouen, the northern Moroccan province where 90,000 households are modestly sustained on the cultivation of cannabis that supplies the bulk of the European market.
Like many a backpacker before him, Dodo was enchanted by the whitewashed medinas that cling to the slopes of Rif mountains and the peaceful farms that nestle above them. But he was there to smuggle hashish – or kif, as its known locally – and too distracted to engage in the ritual of creating a photographic record of his journey.
After Dodo’s death, Kurtis retraced the journey in tribute to a friend, to Chefchaouen, to the farmers who raise a crop that happens to be illegal and fill the coffers of the corrupt, and the trade’s small-time carriers who exploit their bodies as a hold for contraband cargo.
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About Seba Kurtis
Seba Kurtis was born in Argentina in 1974. He studied journalism in Buenos Aires before leaving the country for Europe in the wake of the political and economic crisis of 2001. Several years spent as an illegal immigrant have informed much of his work, which explores the personal, social and cultural impact of irregular migration. Kurtis’s work has been exhibited internationally and his first book, Drowned, published by Here Press in 2011, was selected for the International Photobook Award at the International Photobook Festival, Le Bal, Paris, 2012.
Opening Party: Thursday 24 April 2014, 18:00 to 21:00
Artist Talk and Book Signing: Friday 25 April 2014, 13:30
Curated by Andrew Moseley.