Experimental nominee

The series of collages which I created using embroidery around printed self-portrait photography.

Through my self-portraits I am telling the story I have lived with for ten and a half years. This story is about my house, which no longer exists. The house, which saw the birth of my children and was my bunker and shelter at all times, but in 2014 was unrooted, burned, erased by war from the geographical map of the Donetsk city, Ukraine, leaving a hole deep in my life. I moved several times across Ukraine from 2014 to 2022, trying to be strong all this time, trying to say final “goodbye” to my home and let it go. But in my memory are all those dates that divide my life into “before and after”.

Materials used: printed photography, watercolour paper, floss threads

Irina Cheremisina is a photographer and mixed-media artist currently based in Valencia, Spain. Born in Ukraine, she was obliged to leave her native country when the full-scaled war began in 2022. An economist by Diploma, Irina was always passionate about art, photography and handmade, but she found her professional calling in visual art only after moving to Spain.

Irina works with photography and collage, mixing analog and digital, classic and contemporary.
She is an active participant of international photography exhibitions and festivals in Madrid, Valencia, Alicante, Glasgow, Turin, Trieste, Kyiv.

Irina’s artworks were awarded by TIFA 2024 (1 Gold, 2 Bronze, 3 Honorable Mentions), BIFA 2024 (1 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze, 2 Honorable Mentions), Urban Photo Awards 2024 (Selected Photographer), and also Chromatic Photography Awards 2024, LICC 2023, 23d Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, Fotonostrum Choice Awards, BIFA 2023, TIFA 2023.

Irina’s works were published in the book “100 Contemporary Ukrainian Photographers” in 2024.