Moldova Pavilion 2026: On the Thousand and Second Night

The Republic of Moldova marks its first official participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2026, supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the project On the Thousand and Second Night by Pavel Brăila, curated by Adelina Luft. About On the Thousand and Second Night unfolds as an installation that opens a space for reflection in which imagination and material culture operate as forms of continuity within a world undergoing transformation. For a moment, a technology tied to domination becomes an act of protection, and domestic memory gains the power to keep a shared space suspended in the air. Drawing both on the tradition of carpets woven in homes and villages across Moldova — passed down as dowry and preserved as family memory — and on the Middle Eastern motif of bisat al-rih (the flying carpet) from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, the project reclaims storytelling as a gesture that keeps the possibility of the future open, imagining alternative exits from a world in which borders may shift and security remains fragile. Read more Toggle Installation