Once Upon a Time in the Living Room of the Tiny Dollhouse
(Contemporar)

Artists:
Alexandra Mocan, Ruxandra Nițescu, Ioana Rusu, Bianca Serenciuc, Loredana Ilie, Andriana Oborocean, Lorena Buta

Curator:
Gabriela Moldovan

The dollhouse, as a small, constructed and personalized universe, becomes within the exhibition a symbolic playground, a space in which rules can be reinvented, order can be negotiated, and freedom and imagination manifest without constraint. Once Upon a Time in the Living Room of the Tiny Dollhouse explores this continuous necessity of play, proposing a reflection on how experimentation, the ludic, and creativity have no age and on the fact that every act of imagination is in itself a form of resistance and freedom.

In a context where war has turned the home into a memory and belonging into a wound, young Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion reconstructed, in miniature, their lost homes — transforming the act of play into an act of memory, resistance, and the reclaiming of a space of one’s own. Documented by Daniel Jonas Roche in The Architect’s Newspaper (2024), this gesture became the starting point of the exhibition: a question about what it means to build a world at a small scale when the larger world can no longer be controlled.

Play is not a luxury, an activity of childhood, or an escape, but a way of being and experiencing the world, a fundamental practice at the foundation of culture and creativity. It creates a bounded space, a magic circle in which rules can be invented or reinvented, in which reality can be shaped, tested, and reinterpreted, and the freedom to experiment becomes visible and palpable. The dollhouse becomes a transitional object, a visual and affective playground in which the world can be reorganized and reconfigured at a small scale, holding in tension ideas of control and imagination.

The exhibition Once Upon a Time in the Living Room of the Tiny Dollhouse presents play as dystopian, performative, or memorial, yet it remains a space of creativity, freedom, and exploration. Play offers the possibility of constructing meaning, creating experiences, and transforming reality through symbol and structure, whether expressed through dollhouses, LEGO constructions or complex artistic forms.

Visiting hours | 26 June–1 August 2026 | 15:00–19:00

Gabriela Moldovan (b. 2000, Satu Mare) is a curator, researcher and cultural professional, lives and works in Cluj-Napoca. She is an independent curator with an interdisciplinary practice situated at the intersection of art, scenography, and cinematography. She is interested in creating immersive and participatory environments in which the exhibition space becomes a living stage, a fluid framework that guides visitors through a coherent and reflective narrative. Her curatorial practice is driven by a strong interest in how space, objects, and visual technologies can shape perception and audience engagement with contemporary art. Gabriela understands space not merely as a site of display, but as an active element of artistic discourse, capable of generating emotion and fostering authentic connections between the public and the artwork. She is also a PhD candidate in Cinematography and Media, where she researches multidisciplinary ways of thinking at the intersection of cinematography and curatorial practice, with the aim of creating immersive experiences for visitors.