Kumu Documentary: Veins
Dir Laurian Ghinitoiu, Arata Mori
Romania and Japan 2023, 48 min
Different languages, with English subtitles
The film Veins will be screened as part of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2026, How Much? in collaboration with the Estonian Centre for Architecture, the Tallinn Architecture Biennale and Kumu Documentary.
From quarry to façade: performing under a monumental veil.
The documentary film Veins (2024) follows the journey of 30,000 tons of Portuguese marble from its quarry through European factories to its transformation into the translucent façade of the Perelman Performing Arts Center at New York’s World Trade Center. Adopting a quietly observational approach, the film reveals the human and industrial processes unfolding across different geographies, while exploring the socio-political and environmental forces that shape architecture, placing marble itself at the centre of the narrative.
As a creative duo, Laurian Ghinitoiu and Arata Mori bring together distinct yet complementary disciplines to reimagine architectural storytelling. Ghinitoiu, one of contemporary architecture’s most sought-after photographers, has documented seminal works by Zaha Hadid, SANAA and Tadao Ando, cultivating a visual sensibility attuned to the poetics of the built environment. Mori, a film-maker working in Berlin and Tokyo whose films have been presented at CPH, DOK Leipzig, and the Venice Biennale, displays a cinematic practice shaped by documentary, contemporary art and narrative experimentation.
In Veins, the duo move beyond conventional architectural documentary film-making, crafting instead a cinematic meditation on the built environment as a living organism: one with its own rhythms, textures and narratives.
We thank: Estonian Centre for Architecture and the Tallinn Architecture Biennale
