Farid Belkahia, 40 years into his career, 40 long years of a voyage to the centre of the medium and the memory. Former Director of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Casablanca , he had a clear purpose from early on in his work: a theme of the unfolding of Moroccan culture in all its manifestations: Berber, Arab and Islamic. The medium, firstly oil on canvas and then copper and skin, is more than just the receptacle: it’s a quest into the self. This reference to the traditional media becomes more a symbol of cultural practice as is shown his the works Transes and Malhun which will be exhibited a the Batha Museum in Fez . This awareness of cultural history has always awoken in him the desire to celebrate great men such as Ibn Batouta and in his latest work, Sharîf al Idrîsî ou la dérive des continents, he pays homage to this first great geographer of history .