Handwoven Moldovan carpets at the Venice Art Biennale
Moldova joins the Venice Art Biennale for the first time. The country’s pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition features “On the Thousand and Second Night” by Pavel Brăila. The exhibition runs through November 22.
Part of the 2026 Venice Art Biennale under the theme “In Minor Keys,” the installation “On the Thousand and Second Night” builds a reflective space where the tension between war technologies and cultural imagery opens new ways of understanding the present.
Presented in the Santa Veneranda Chapel, the installation brings together a composition of handwoven carpets drawn from the shared memory of multiple territories, suspended between floor and ceiling and held by drones.
The largest carpet in the exhibition comes from Olănești and belongs to the artist’s aunt, Pavel Brăila. The ensemble creates a contrast between fragility and strength, tradition and technology.
In this setup, an object tied to domestic space and the transmission of memory becomes dependent on technology often associated with surveillance and conflict. The installation thus reverses symbolic roles: drones no longer monitor or control but support, transforming an instrument of power into an act of protection.
Moldova participates for the first time in the Venice Art Biennale. The pavilion was developed by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with support from the Embassy of Italy in Chișinău.
