Mar 21 - August 29, 2026 | Genk (BE)
Cemra’s work transforms trauma, displacement and memory into deeply physical forms, where the surface becomes a living body marked by both care and rupture.
Born in Belarus and now living in exile in Warsaw, her practice unfolds between control and surrender, in a space where image, body and memory dissolve into one another.
Through layered and tactile works using plaster bandages, resin, oil and other materials, Cemra explores fragile territories of belonging, loss and resilience. Since being forced into exile from Belarus in 2022, her work has increasingly focused on collective trauma and the scars left by political repression.
ABSENCE is an exhibition about loss, displacement and the voids that become “living witnesses.” Bringing togetherZiamliačka (recently exhibited at Kunsthaus Graz, Austria), Homeless and Status Quo, the exhibition explores exile and the fragile condition of identity shaped by political violence.
In Ziamliačka, 225 kilograms of soil transported from Belarus become a vessel of memory and longing. Through enfleurage, the scent of the soil is extracted and preserved, transforming absence into something tangible. In Homeless and Status Quo, bound bodies, bandages, cardboard and fractured forms connect personal vulnerability with the political realities of contemporary Belarus. A national symbol placed in a wheelchair emerges as a haunting metaphor for a frozen future and prolonged agony.
