Yana Nafysa Dombrowsky-M’Baye is a multidisciplinary researcher and educator from Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Yana’s matrilineal ancestry harkens to Sénégal and France, and her patrilineal lineage is of Polish/Czech descent. Across moving image, site-specific installation, and the fabrication of talismanic objects, Yana’s practice is a poetic inquiry into the material and immaterial conditions of belonging.
Through iterative and ritualistic processes, Yana speculates upon art practice as a form of archaeology, working with the mnemonic, fragmentary and absent materialisations of intercultural identities in places marked by colonial history and personal heritage.
At present, Yana is at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, participating as one of five internationally selected artists in the program Post-Diplôme (Postgraduate Program), which will conclude late 2025. From October 2025 to March 2026, Yana will be participating as one of ten participants in the Cité Internationale des Arts’ “In Situ” program.
Through iterative and ritualistic processes, Yana speculates upon art practice as a form of archaeology, working with the mnemonic, fragmentary and absent materialisations of intercultural identities in places marked by colonial history and personal heritage.
At present, Yana is at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, participating as one of five internationally selected artists in the program Post-Diplôme (Postgraduate Program), which will conclude late 2025. From October 2025 to March 2026, Yana will be participating as one of ten participants in the Cité Internationale des Arts’ “In Situ” program.