Decolonialism, for the Republic of Moldova, is a continuous process embedded within a trajectory across complex geopolitical landscapes. The consequences of colonization permeate the entire social and cultural tissue of the region—although the country has gained independence, its identity remains fragmented, its freedoms diffuse, and external pressures continue to mold its social, economic, and cultural landscape.

Decolonization, postcolonialism, and self-colonization delineate three interconnected phenomena retraced in the Prut-Nistru region, which shape the way postcolonial societies negotiate between their historical past and the contemporary globalized context. While decolonization refers to liberation from external political domination, postcolonialism investigates the complexity of identity challenges, whereas self-colonization, a more subtle phenomenon, involves the perpetuation of internal mechanisms through which a nation sabotages its own identity imprint.

The D-colonial exhibition focuses on questioning the perpetuation of colonial narratives across various strands of reality in Moldova, proposing a critical reassessment of how local society relates to external/internal powers. The project explores the three key concepts of de-, post-, and self-colonization in the modern context, with a focus on the identity challenges faced by societies that have experienced colonialism and external domination.