Houda Terjuman

Born in morocco in 1970 from a Syrian father and a Swiss mother, Houda Terjuman holds a Bachelor in Management in the American College of Switzerland (Leysin) and a Preparatory School of Design in Lausanne .

The history of her practice is overwhelmingly informed by her status as hybrid migrant, a condition associated to second generation migrants. Her father is Syrian, her mother Swiss and she was born in Morocco. She is therefore African.The transient nature of her evolution as a person and as an artist opened up fascinating ways of playing with representation in art. 

Her father as a first generation migrant used to tell them that they had no safety net and the integration in another country was necessary. However, she chose to refuse the concept and the practice of assimilation and instead, she cherished the status of hybridity which to her, offers a rich mix of backgrounds, voices, and belongings. 

Even though she will eternally feel foreign and possibly always displaced, she has earned through her experience an incredible strength which comes from the power of mobility, and the sense of freedom brought to her through the multitude of roots, languages and cultures she has grown up with. 

It is precisely in this fine space between the ideal that a new life in a new place can offer, mixed with the regret of loss and nostalgia that is carried through the process of migration, that she has chosen to situate her practice and through which she works to represented feelings of floating freedom, but also of fear and insecurity. 

Her sculptures and paintings are little familiar objects that weave stories. These small objects act as bearers of hope and bridges making the link between cultures. An empty chair symbolises what we left behind and keeps us connected to our roots. A lonely boat, is a bearer of hope. A floating bridge invites us to build connections and empathy towards the unknown.