40°N is a borrowed itinerary, pursued to fulfil a longing—a yearning for freedom, intimacy, vastness, emptiness, awareness, and gratitude. The only guiding principle is to follow an imagined, fixed circumference, unburdened by the need to choose destinations or plan routes. What remains is simply a direction to follow. Paradoxically, a path that is considered rigid and predetermined reveals all its emancipation. The original constraint is transformed into a deep sense of freedom that reflects so well the essence of travel and the unknown.

40°N is a project born of introspection and finds its aesthetic expression in photography. Each sequence of images becomes simultaneously a self-portrait and a portrait of the world: a fusion of biological identity and universal expression. The work features simple spheres of hair—small hornlike globes scattered across a planet ruled by seasons and circular rhythms. The circle, the sphere, the line—symbols of perfection, closure, and completion. The curve-line-hair serves as both a graphic element and a genetic fingerprint. The stable isotopes embedded in hair proteins offer unique identifiers, providing insights into health, diet, socioeconomic background, and even travel history. Each strand of hair preserves within its structure the traces of 2–3 years of life—a meticulous autobiography, shaped by countless cycles woven into the singular, finite cycle of existence. For a decade, I collected and shaped these tiny balls of hair without knowing why— drawn by the referral to the ineffable that is the essence of beauty, captivated by their form and the intricate, organic lines that defined them. The hundreds of tiny hornlike globes scattered along the 40th parallel are sparse points interspersed among the infinite that compose it. Yet, to define a circumference, it is not necessary to know all its points. Imagination alone is enough to grasp its existence. In Kassel, a 5cm circle at the center of a sandstone slab marks the cross-section of Walter de Maria's Vertical Earth Kilometer (1977). Standing at this humble marker is enough to imagine the 18-ton brass rod penetrating vertically and invisibly into the earth. 

40°N emerged from nothing—a deeply personal, naïve, and unassuming vision. Its essence is gratitude: for the wonder that the world offers and the moments that inspire awe. Through photography, I preserve the memory of a completed cycle, an aesthetic insight, and the quiet harmony of merging with something far greater.