LUMIAR CITÉ

Sandra Muteteri Heremans
The Space Between the Silences
10.10 – 20.12.2026

10.10 | 17:00 Conversation between Manuela Ribeiro Sanches and the artist

| 17h30 Opening of the exhibition

05.11 | 19:00 Guided tour with Jürgen Bock, Lisbon Art Weekend

Sandra Muteteri Heremans, Je t'embrasse, Gilbert, 2026, film still

In ‘The Space Between the Silences’, Rwandan-Belgian artist Sandra Muteteri Heremans explores intertwined histories shaped by diasporic experiences, post-independence African socialist movements and the legacies of Cold War politics.

The exhibition focuses on intimate narratives to reflect on the ways in which memory is transmitted, how silences are passed on and which voices make their way through the grand narratives of history. By interweaving past and present storylines, the artist engages with intergenerational transmission as a place of diasporic worlding.

The exhibition brings together the film Je t'embrasse, Gilbert (2026), commissioned by Maumaus/Lumiar Cité and WIELS, Brussels, produced by Auguste Orts, and a selection of collages and maps that offer insight into the artist’s exploration of archives, oral histories and embodied knowledge. Starting with an archive of letters, Muteteri Heremans traces the correspondence of an East African student in the USSR in the 1970s. The film combines found footage with a voiceover narrative, revealing what lies beneath or between the silences of historical records.

At the threshold of fiction and documentary, the exhibition explores the undercurrent of broader political stakes by foregrounding personal experiences of longing, alienation, friendship and solidarity.


Sandra Muteteri Heremans is a Rwandan-Belgian visual artist and filmmaker with a background in art history and anthropology. Working across film, archival research, installation and lecture-performance, her practice explores the ways in which personal histories intersect with the artistic and political legacies of the twentieth century. Her work often moves between Rwanda, Belgium and histories of the former Soviet Union, bringing archival traces, family narratives and historical research into dialogue. Her films include La Mazda jaune et sa sainteté (2018), which premiered internationally at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and was subsequently shown at festivals including DOK Leipzig, Ann Arbor Film Festival and International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Her work and performances have been presented at institutions including Bozar, Brussels, The Mosaic Rooms, London, Contour Biennale, Mechelen, and Boghossian Foundation, Brussels.

The exhibition, a partnership between Maumaus/Lumiar Cité and WIELS–Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels, where it will be presented next year, is supported by the Department of Culture, Youth and Media of the Flemish Government.