Moldova is a country at the crossroads of European integration and Russian influence, where contrasting visions of identity and the future coexist. These divisions become particularly visible during one single day – the 9th of May. On 9 May 2025, Chișinău celebrated Europe Day, projecting a future-oriented narrative built around European belonging, individual freedoms and opportunity. On the same day, Tiraspol, the capital of a breakaway region of Transnistria, celebrated Victory Day, reaffirming a worldview rooted in the Soviet legacy, collective memory and political alignment with Moscow, intensified by the 80th anniversary of the victory and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Photographed entirely within one day, the project follows these parallel celebrations unfolding less than 70 kilometres apart. The series is structured as diptychs, each pairing images from Chișinău and Tiraspol to confront two perspectives side by side. Despite shared geography and closely connected populations, symbols, rituals and public space reveal divergent narratives of belonging. By focusing on one country, one day and two neighbouring cities, the project shows how Moldova’s future is being imagined in different directions at the same moment in time.