​

     I was born in Tangier​,  Morocco on August 17, 1958. When I was a ​​​​​​​​v​e​​​​​​​​ry young child my father was the concierge at the Rembrandt Hotel in downtown Tangier.  One night, in 1970, an earthquake hit the town and an American tourist staying on the sixth floor of the hotel freaked out and jumped out the window of his room killing himself.
  The US embassy staff took care of the poor man but left behind at the hotel a suitcase that no one wanted. One day my father brought the suitcase home and threw it under his bed.
   I was curious about this suitcase...a suitcase of a dead man.  After a couple of days  I mustered some courage and opened the suitcase. Inside were some clothes, some sketch pads and a bunch of books on the Italian artist Giorgio De Chirico​. I had never seen books like that. ...photos of the paintings, this world  between pages that I had never imagined, or seen before. I  couldn't pry myself away from them for days....and ever since haven't stopped making art .....