Latifa Echakhch

Born in 1974 in El Khnansa, Morocco. Lives and works in Switzerland. Latifa Echakhch often introduces associations with ‘cultural mementos’ that reveal a complicated relationships, where symbolic valency is subtracted, its absence suggesting an entirely new meaning and presence. Echakhch re-imagines and re-evaluates found objects and defamiliarizes the vernacular, questioning the meaning embedded in these and, in general, our own relationship and preconceptions towards such objects. Only when supposedly known objects have been emptied of their original meaning can they be read in many ways. Referencing and appropriating the archetypes, ideologies of modernism and beyond, she reflects on the often-prejudiced perception of national and religious identities in works that are both poetic and conceptual, and questions the semantics of cultural paradigms, providing instead what the artist calls “poetic transfiguration”. ...

Dvir Gallery was founded in 1982 by Dvir Intrator to introduce cutting-edge contemporary Israeli artists. In 1994 the gallery broadened its’ representation to include international artists such as Miroslaw Balka, Marianne Berenhaut, Douglas Gordon, Latifa Echakhch, and Lawrence Weiner in its’ program. In 2013, Dvir Gallery combined its’ 3 separate spaces into a 5-story building, the first of its’ kind in Tel Aviv. In 2016, the gallery opened its first gateway to Europe with a branch in Brussels, which strengthen and developed the existing relationship with the international artistic community. Earlier this year, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the gallery opened a space in Paris, in the heart of the historical Marais District, emphasizing the special ties and connection the gallery has had, since its beginnings, with the French cultural milieu, collaborating with artists, institutions and private collections. ...