Passages

Cherif and Sylvie Defraoui worked together as an artistic couple from 1975, when they decided to co-author the works and texts they produced under the general title "Archives of the Future", until 1994 when Cherif died. Cherif was born in 1932 in Geneva, grew up in Egypt and returned to Geneva, where he studied classics. Sylvie was born in 1935 in St-Gall, Switzerland, studied painting at the Algiers School of Fine Arts and then decorative arts in Geneva. In the 1960s they lived primarily in Spain, and on their return to Switzerland they settled in Geneva and taught at the École Superieure d'art visual (ESAV) (now the Haute Ecole d'Art et de Design). The Defraoui were pioneers in the creation of video works, as well as in the use of multimedia, and even created works that combined video, photography, installations, painting and sculpture. Their work was paradoxical, challenging notions of space and time as well as those of collective memory. Highly technical and perfect, it is distinguished for its simplicity and clarity, while also making use of realistic elements, it operates on a conceptual level. They presented their joint work in more than forty solo exhibitions, and after Cherif's death Sylvie continued to exhibit individually. In addition, they participated in numerous group exhibitions worldwide, several of which were international events (Venice Biennale 1976, 1993, Documenta, Cassel 1986, etc.). In 2004 a major retrospective exhibition of their works was co-organized by the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, the Musee d' art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO) in Geneva and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art. Sylvie Defraoui now lives and works in Vufflens-le Château, Switzerland.