Pavel Brăila

On the Thousand and Second Night

★★★★☆

Curated by Adelina Luft
On until 22 November 2026

Who knew that total temporal collapse would manifest magic. Moldova’s first outing in Venice mixes the hackneyed craft of carpet weaving, which one might expect to see in a heritage project of an arriviste nation, with the futuristic might of drones that has become the calling card of China’s techno-cultural displays.

The carpets float in pitch dark, disorienting the audience under with the whirring of motors and gusts of chilling air. With detailed tales from the weavers’ cultures absent, the mind drifts to air warfare that today haunts the lands of a Thousand and One Nights. That we lack the patience for a thousand more is only a pity.


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

When Forms Come Alive at Hayward Gallery ★★☆☆☆

When Forms Come Alive

★★☆☆☆

This exhibition cannot decide if it’s a tourist attraction or a serious examination of sculpture’s relationship with movement.

Leah Clements: Apophenia at PEER ★★☆☆☆

Leah Clements

Apophenia

★★☆☆☆

It takes a lot to pull off an essay film, and Clements is no essayist.

Manfred Pernice, Megan Plunknett, >anticorpo< at Galerie Neu and Emalin ★★★★☆

Manfred Pernice, Megan Plunknett

>anticorpo<

★★★★☆

Such ‘80s nostalgia for meaning before history’s end is a comfort blanket.

Li Yi-Fan: Screen Melancholy at Taiwanese pavilion in Venice ★★★☆☆

Li Yi-Fan

Screen Melancholy

★★★☆☆

Characters lose themselves in screens-within-screens.

Soufiane Ababri, Their mouths at Barbican ★★☆☆☆

Soufiane Ababri

Their mouths were full of bumblebees

★★☆☆☆

Ababri’s paintings for the Grindr generation are more cartoonish than they are from life.

Marina Xenofontos, Public Domain at Camden Art Centre ★★★☆☆

Marina Xenofontos

Public Domain

★★★☆☆

There’s an unfortunate ‘emerging artist’ vibe to this handful of readymade sculptures.

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