From its beginnings in 1975 to the present, the work of Silvie & Chérif Defraoui has engendered a historical and artistic body that forms an integral element of what we call, with a generalizing term, the art of the 1970s.
Their multifaceted oeuvre from this period presents unexpected artistic forms, often involving materials and themes, objects and techniques, that were unheard of at the time. The entire series, which brought the Defraouis international renown, is collectively titled Archives du Futur. All pieces relate to this key concept, which synthesizes or questions a totality of space and time.
With Rooms (Lieux de mémoire VI) (1976–2003), Galerie Susanna Kulli now revisits a set of works Silvie & Chérif Defraoui created together in the 1970s.
In these large-format photographs, a superimposition takes place on the level of image, architecture, and writing: “The order of architecture determines the narrative, and the projections that build up in the place restore to it a diaphanous and contradictory memory. In the painted words, space fades into the photographic image,” the artists write.

Silvie Defraoui -