The Republic of Moldova is officially participating for the first time in the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most important contemporary art events, with the project On the Thousand and Second Night, created by Pavel Brăila and curated by Adelina Luft. Opened at Santa Veneranda in Venice, the pavilion presents an installation that brings together tradition and technology through carpets suspended by drones, offering a reflection on memory, war, and solidarity. This participation marks an important moment for Moldovan culture and for the visibility of contemporary art from the Republic of Moldova on the international stage.
“Participation in La Biennale di Venezia and the opening of this pavilion represent a significant moment for the country’s cultural diplomacy. We are pleased to see the interest shown by both the public and art professionals in this project, which brings forward a relevant artistic voice and a reflection on contemporary realities,” stated Minister of Culture Cristian Jardan.
Part of the 2026 edition held under the theme In Minor Keys, the installation On the Thousand and Second Night creates a space for reflection in which the tension between technologies of war and cultural imagination opens up possibilities for new ways of understanding the present.
Presented in the Santa Veneranda Chapel, the installation brings together a composition of carpets woven from the shared memory of multiple territories, floating between floor and ceiling and supported by drones. Among them is a large carpet made in the village of Olănești, Ștefan Vodă district, by Pavel Brăila’s aunt. The ensemble creates a contrast between fragility and strength, tradition and technology. In this configuration, an object associated with domestic space and the transmission of memory becomes dependent on a technology often linked to surveillance and conflict. The installation thus proposes a symbolic reversal of functions: the drones no longer track or control, but instead support, transforming an instrument of power into a gesture of protection.
Starting from carpets originating from different cultural contexts and from a collective memory extending beyond a single territory, the work activates the imaginary of One Thousand and One Nights as an open framework in which storytelling becomes a way of preserving the possibility of alternative directions. In this sense, flight does not appear as an escape, but as a form of solidarity and collective imagination.
The participation of the Republic of Moldova at La Biennale di Venezia is organized by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The opening of Moldova’s first national pavilion was also supported by the Embassy of Italy in Chișinău, whose contribution was significant.
Pavel Brăila (b. 1971, Chișinău) lives and works between Chișinău and Berlin. He is one of the most internationally recognized artists from the Republic of Moldova. His practice, spanning film, photography, installation, and performance, explores the social and political realities of Eastern Europe through attentive observation and subtle irony. He has participated twice in Documenta (2002, 2017) and in Manifesta 10 (2014). His works have been presented at institutions including Tate, Neue Nationalgalerie, Moderna Museet, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Kiasma, and Renaissance Society.
Adelina Luft is a curator based in Bucharest. Between 2014 and 2021, she worked in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where she developed decolonial, process-oriented, and interdisciplinary projects. Since 2022, she has been based in Bucharest, where she curated, among others, the group exhibition Ecologies of Repair at Gaep (2022) and the residency project Flowing Streams (2024), initiated by EUNIC Romania. She is part of the tranzit.ro/Bucharest team, active at the Experimental Research Station for Art and Life, and in 2025 co-founded the Amaranth Seed Collective / ASK together with artists, curators, and architects on a shared plot adjacent to the Research Station.
