espace annexe
espace annexe (Biel/ Bienne)
espace annexe is an independent art space in Biel, Switzerland, promoting emerging artists through exhibitions and incisive curatorial projects. It provides financial and practical support to cultural actors with closeness and attentiveness.
Founded in 2022 around Victor Sala’s curatorial vision, the project prioritizes strong authenticity and invested collaboration, respecting artistic intentions while situating them within the current socio-political context.
Deeply rooted in local and national culture, espace annexe sustains strong ties within Switzerland’s independent art scene.
Proposal
espace annexe’s participation in the SWAB Art Fair highlights a past collaboration by inviting Sophie Conus, who held a solo exhibition in 2025. Granted full creative freedom, she conceives the booth as another solo show, reflecting the similar scale and usual functioning of espace annexe.
Rooted in slow observation, the presented project resists modern velocity by elevating forgotten fragments. It combines sculptural fabrication with visual experimentation to create ambiguous vitrines where light traps the gaze and memory persists despite loss.
Born in Lausanne in 1997, Sophie Conus graduated from the Work.Master program at HEAD – Genève in 2023. Through installations composed of sound and sculptures that she produces herself, Sophie seeks to create singular, unsettling worlds that reflect her fascination with materiality and specific atmospheres. Oscillating between the artificial and the organic, these environments are held in tension through contrasts of materials and sound.
The creation of fragmented narratives informed by notions such as childhood, underlying fear, and horror in popular culture forms a central reference point in her practice. She enjoys creating site-specific works that establish a dialogue between the artworks and the space they inhabit. She is currently exploring forms of resistance within urban space as a way of reclaiming the city. Sophie Conus is interested in the ways nature infiltrates the cracks of contemporary architecture, as well as in the objects of hostile architecture. Ambiguous in nature, these objects can be both protective and violent, visible and discreet. Public space thus becomes a site of reflection, a political arena where rebellion remains possible.
Alongside her visual and musical practice, Sophie Conus is also a member of LIMBO, a collective artists’ project dedicated to artistic experimentation and critical reflection. LIMBO is currently responsible for the curatorial program of Zabriskie, an art space housed in a former tram stop waiting room located at the Rond-Point de Plainpalais, in the heart of Geneva.
Sophie Conus has exhibited her work at Salle Crosnier, Halle Nord, Musée Ariana, Musée de Carouge – Centre d’Art Contemporain, LiveInYourHead, and Topic in Geneva. She has also participated in exhibitions at Kunsthaus Langenthal, Kunst(Zeus)haus Rapperswil, as well as in Lausanne, Basel, Winterthur, Cari, and Lugano in Switzerland, and in Nice (FR), Berlin (DE), Copenhagen (DK), Monza, and Turbigo (IT).
