« Palm trees, camels and swarthy children smiling under blue skies are no longer representative of the Morocco I perceive, which is a multicultural and dynamic Morocco. »
At the age of 18, Merji left his native Morocco for France. After eight years in Paris, returning to his country froze him in an ideal in-between. His reconnection to the local culture gave birth to a photographic diary, far from a sublimated vision of static landscapes, and Moroccan culture naturally takes on a universal nature. “Diary of the Bled” is a journey through today’s Morocco, a singular imagination enriched with collective influences and references.
« It is also a testimony of my generation, a generation Y rooted in a global culture, that takes pleasure in screen-writing their life through the social networks, that is breaking away from certain dogmas and that does not hesitate to shape their reality to fit the « movie of their life. » An uninhibited generation that assumes their multiple and changing identity. » Merji
Part of the artworks of the exhibition Diary of the Bled was selected by the Arab World Institute as part of its exhibition Le Maroc Contemporain (October 15, 2014- February 28, 2015).