61st Venice Art Biennale in 2026  Florentina Holzinger creates show at Austrian Pavilion

The Austrian choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger represents Austria at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia with Seaworld Venice, a bold new interdisciplinary commission, curated by Nora-Swantje Almes. 

Known for her genre-defying work that challenges socio-political conventions, Holzinger uses her long-standing research into the element of water—as both subject and symbol—to explore the human body in a radically changing landscape, in which nature and technology collide.

Florentina Holzinger combines extreme physicality with theatrical precision to probe the limits of corporeal agency. Working across dance, performance, opera, and theatre, and critically engaging with their histories, the artist blends legitimised ‘high’ culture with pop and countercultural currents to unsettle the lines between spectacle and subversion. Her works experiment with endurance and moments of extremity—to make power legible at the level of the body.

Elemental forces, such as water and bodily fluids, recur as material presence in her work and are used as agents that act upon bodies while implicating the audiences who witness them.

Seaworld Venice

Under the title “Seaworld Venice”, Holzinger co-operate with a team of performers, musicians, stunt co-ordinators and producers.

For the Austrian Pavilion, she continues and expands her research into the element of water – for the first time, this is implemented in an exhibition concept. As usual, Florentina Holzinger puts the focus on a feminist approach to the motifs: She explores various modes of female representation and the potential of female physicality by continuously working on their expansion and the discovery of new possibilities. In the context of Venice, new approaches open up for this long-standing research. Water creatures from mythological and classic tales constitute starting points for immersing into a possible future of Venice.

The jury stated the following reasons for their decision:

Florentina Holzinger convinced the jury with her innovative proposal for the Austrian Pavilion 2026 that combines – in line with her interdisciplinary approach – elements of dance, theater and performance art. The current relevance of the questions she raises ranging from how water is managed as a resource to existential bodily experiences and the societal norms defined for them impressed the jury along with the planned implementation in diverse formats: Both the installation in the Pavilion and the etudes in the lagoon allow the visitors to take part personally at different levels.

Thus, the artist creates a variable esthetic space for experiences that enriches the exhibition context with dramaturgical elements of theater and generates powerful images. Moreover, based on her sometimes provocative and socio-critical approach to the human body, Florentina Holzinger forms part of a line of Austrian art history (Viennese Actionism, feminist body art).