Elisa Diaferia (b.1998, Milan) and Juri Simoncini (b.1999, Florence) are an Italian artist duo active
between Germany and Italy. They’re based in Frankfurt am Main, where they studied
at the Städelschule, under Professors Hague Yang and Thomas Hirschhorn.
Their research, straddling sculpture and
digital practices, is grounded on an interest in the limits and possibilities of language and storytelling.
A logic of refraction and redistribution of information bits is the constructive principle for hyper-layered, clue-bearing installations that observe the potential of a critical mass to contain meaning. In their practice, a case of study is often ‘rewritten’ through an injective research approach, making of it a tool for fantasy and speculation, and allowing stories to become unstable. With a sculptural attitude to sound, and a musical one to form, they bridge languages with a focus on machinic imagery, as a revealing space for the phenomenological structure of things. Appropriating codes and communicative formats, they explore the way that cosmologies come to be, worlds are built and myths are born.
Their work has been shown internationally, including recent solo shows such as À bloc (aaaa nordhavn, Copenhagen, 2025), Troopers (fffriedrich, Frankfurt am Main, 2025), and BONYLAB (Husslehof, Frankfurt am Main, 2024).
In 2024, the choral book BONYLAB - Takeover in three movements was published by windpark books following the duo’s eponymous solo show. Previously the same year, they were awarded the Staedelschule Portikus e.V. Rundgang Prize.
Simoncini and Diaferia are part of the network of Frankfurt-based artists behind Tearoom, an itinerant performance project whose iterations were held, among others, at the Architecture Biennale in Venice (2021), the Delfina Foundation in London (2023), the Vietnam Art Collection in Hanoi (2025), and the Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam (2025).
EDUCATION (Elisa Diaferia)
2021 - 2025
Hochschule für Bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
2017-21
Bachelor Degree at Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan (IT)
EDUCATION (Juri Simoncini)
2022 - 2025
Hochschule für Bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
2018-22
Bachelor Degree at Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan (IT)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
-À bloc, aaaa nordhavn, Copenhagen (DK)
-Troopers, fffriedrich, Frankfurt am Main
(DE)
2024
- BONYLAB, Husslehof, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
2023
- The best night goggles ever, Saasfee*satellit, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
https://www.saasfee.de/pavillon/satellit/soloshows/
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
-(upcoming) Stipendium 4.0, Museum Wiesbaden (DE)
-(upcoming) Overture, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
-House tension, Alte Schmelze, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
-Colloquial, Vietnam Art Collection, Hanoi (VN)
2024
- TBH, Magma Maria, Offenbach am Main (DE)
2023
-Tearoom Relay: PIT STOP, Delfina Foundation, London (UK)
https://www.delfinafoundation.com/whats-on/tearoom-relay-pit-stop/
-Care Package, Tunnel Tunnel, Lausanne (CH)
https://tunneltunnel.ch/en/exhibitions/care-package
-Unorthodox way of opening up, Fondation Tschuess, Karlsruhe (DE)
https://fondationtschuess.org/unorthodoxwaysofopeningup
2022
-Saluti da CoCo!, Como Contemporanea, Como (IT)
-Brutal Tenderness, Studiolo, Golab Agency, Milano (IT)
https://golabagency.com/art/group-show-brutal-tenderness/
2021
- Slow Signal, Korean Pavillion Biennale Architettura 2021, Venezia (IT)
https://futureschool.kr/en/slow-signal
- Campo Minato, Como Contemporanea, Como (IT)
- PICK CLIQUE - Choose your fighter, Curated by Viola Morini, Como Contemporanea (CoCo),
Como (IT)
- Semitraglia, Spazio Marea, Milan (IT)
2019
- Teenage Wasteland, SpazioFico, Milano (IT)
2018
-UHM, SpazioFico, Milano (IT)
http://www.spaziofico.com/past/uhm/
AWARDS
- Hochschule für Bildende Künste - Städelschule Portikus e.V. Rundgang Prize 2024
PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
-Haegue Yang & Tearoom, text by Sophie Huang, ARTIFACT Journal, Issue #1, Spring-summer 2025 (ENG-VI)
https://www.vac.art/vi/copy-of-vb-artifact-journal
- BONYLAB - Takeover in three movements, Elisa Diaferia and Juri Simoncini with texts by Olga Hohmann, Anna Helena Marckwald, Viola Morini, Windpark books, 2024 (ENG)
https://windparkbooks.de/produkt/bonylab/
- Zoom-Out in die Selbstreflexion
Miniaturen im Magma Maria, text by Anna Marckwald, gallerytalk.net,
August 11, 2024
(DE)
https://www.gallerytalk.net/magma-maria-miniaturen-tbh/
- Episodio II Le città satelliti: Como / CoCo – ComoContemporanea, text by
Eleonora Milani, Flash Art,
356 PRIMAVERA 2022, CROSS/ROADS, May 25, 2022
(ITA)
https://flash---art.it/article/crossroads-como/
- I vicini di casa: il tour d’arte subito fuori Milano / II, text by Annika Pettini, Zero magazine, February 17, 2022
(ITA)
https://zero.eu/it/news/i-vicini-di-casa-seconda-tappa-del-tour-darte-subito-fuori-milano/