Mostre, Svizzera, Bezirk Zuerich, Zürich, 02 November 2011
Silvie Defraoui’s art, which has drawn accolades at numerous exhibitions in Switzerland and
abroad and earned major cultural awards, resonates with wide Swiss audiences. As a
professor at the École Supérieure d’Art Visuel (ESAV) in Geneva, Defraoui has moreover
been a guiding figure for two generations of students. She and her partner Chérif Defraoui
(1932–1994) were among the earliest pioneers of video art.
Silvie Defraoui’s first solo exhibition at Galerie Susanna Kulli, entitled the Image in the
Ground, unites ornamental and geometric floor tiles the artist has collected since 1986 in
buildings slated for demolition near her second residence in Spain; they form the matrix on
which the work is based.
As the artist applies lines and circular shapes to accentuate features, the handmade is no
longer clearly distinguishable from the machine-made. Of a visual clarity that recalls
pictograms, the works include references to the vocabulary of modernism as well as
phenomena of everyday culture while hinting at the imaginary in ornamental Islamic art.
“I am interested in intimations that splinters of the world vouchsafe of how everything is
connected,” Silvie Defraoui said about her work in an interview in 2006.*
The exhibition the Image in the Ground, on display at Galerie Susanna Kulli through
December 18, presents a first splinter from the artist’s rich oeuvre.
Starting on January 13, 2012, Galerie Susanna Kulli will show new photographs, videos, and
neon works by Silvie Defraoui.
abroad and earned major cultural awards, resonates with wide Swiss audiences. As a
professor at the École Supérieure d’Art Visuel (ESAV) in Geneva, Defraoui has moreover
been a guiding figure for two generations of students. She and her partner Chérif Defraoui
(1932–1994) were among the earliest pioneers of video art.
Silvie Defraoui’s first solo exhibition at Galerie Susanna Kulli, entitled the Image in the
Ground, unites ornamental and geometric floor tiles the artist has collected since 1986 in
buildings slated for demolition near her second residence in Spain; they form the matrix on
which the work is based.
As the artist applies lines and circular shapes to accentuate features, the handmade is no
longer clearly distinguishable from the machine-made. Of a visual clarity that recalls
pictograms, the works include references to the vocabulary of modernism as well as
phenomena of everyday culture while hinting at the imaginary in ornamental Islamic art.
“I am interested in intimations that splinters of the world vouchsafe of how everything is
connected,” Silvie Defraoui said about her work in an interview in 2006.*
The exhibition the Image in the Ground, on display at Galerie Susanna Kulli through
December 18, presents a first splinter from the artist’s rich oeuvre.
Starting on January 13, 2012, Galerie Susanna Kulli will show new photographs, videos, and
neon works by Silvie Defraoui.
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