The flying carpets held aloft by drones in On the Thousand and Second Night, the project marking the Republic of Moldova’s first official participation in the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, will become the starting point on 16 October for HYBRIDREAMS – Imagining otherwise in times of crisis, a roundtable exploring how war and the crises of the present are changing the ways in which we imagine the future.
The event, organised in collaboration with the Europe Cultural Foundation and Europe Council for Foreign Relations, will take place at Chiesa dei Santi Geremia e Lucia in Venice, home to the Moldova Pavilion, and is open to the public. The programme begins at 4 pm and includes a tour of the church led by Don Gianmatteo Caputo, priest and architect, responsible for the ecclesiastical cultural heritage of the Patriarchate of Venice and administrator of the church since 2018.
HYBRIDREAMS takes one of the central ideas of Pavel Brăila’s work, beyond the exhibition space: the possibility of continuation. The series of stories has not ended, and new ones can be written and narrated together. HYBRIDREAMS brings this proposition into the present, at a moment when war and political and social upheaval are calling into question assumptions that, until recently, appeared stable.
The discussion begins with Moldova’s geopolitical realities and expands to consider the future of Europe and the ways in which political thought, cultural practice, and artistic imagination respond to war and its consequences. The roundtable brings together Nicu Popescu, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova and Distinguished Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations; André Wilkens, Director of the European Cultural Foundation; and Silvia Eiblmayr, Austrian art historian, curator and author. The discussion will be moderated by Adelina Luft, curator of On the Thousand and Second Night.
Nicu Popescu’s experience in foreign policy, European security and Moldova’s European integration process grounds the discussion in the political realities from which the project takes its point of departure. André Wilkens brings a perspective shaped by his work on culture and democracy in the European context, while Silvia Eiblmayr will draw on her research for General Alert. Wars That Never Have Ended (2022), an exhibition examining how artists from Eastern and Southeastern Europe and Austria have responded to wars and their enduring effects. The exhibition included Pavel Brăila’s Vera Means Belief (2022).
Venue: Moldova Pavilion (Spazio Santa Veneranda, Chiesa dei Santi Geremia e Lucia, Cannaregio 272).
