Born in 1962 from a German mother and an Egyptian father, Susan Hefuna divides her time between Düsseldorf, Cairo and New York.
Her work has been exhibited at the Louvre, the New Museum in New York and the Venice Biennale, among others.
All of S. Hefuna's works reflect her dual cultural heritage: she draws her inspiration from this experience of crossed cultures, each filled with their own emotional charge and particular codes. It plays with these different cultural codes that constitute it, as well as with their interpretations.
Among her favourite themes, S. Hefuna revisits the theme of the moucharabieh: this wooden cut-out, a kind of screen found in traditional Islamic architecture, has, in its classical use, multiple functions: it filters light, allows air circulation, but, above all, protects the women of the Harem from outside scrutiny while allowing them to see what is happening there.
