Artist: Florentina Holzinger
Curated by Nora-Swantje Almes
Commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture,
Media and Sport, Division IV – Arts and Culture

 

On site support

 

Florentina Holzinger represents Austria at the 61. International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia with SEAWORLD VENICE.

Known for her genre-defying work that challenges socio-political conventions, Holzinger conceptualises the Austrian Pavilion as a sacred building, underwater theme park and sewage treatment plant.

Visitors’ bodily fluids are turned into living quarters for performers inhabiting the Austrian Pavilion, while also actively contributing to the pavilion’s flooding.

Holzinger’s work takes the form of a machinic organism: action and its consequences are negotiated. It explores the body within a radically changing landscape where nature and technology collide.

Florentina Holzinger combines extreme physicality with theatrical precision to probe the limits of corporeal agency.

“In Venice – a city caught in a profound and precarious relationship with water – my ongoing fascination with this element will take on new dimensions. Here, the body will play a central role in exploring the interdependence and interplay between nature and technology.”

-The artist

 

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.

 

Alongside its presentation at the Giardini della Biennale, SEAWORLD VENICE features a series of performances across multiple formats and locations in Venice.

 

Website: www.seaworldvenice.at

 

Photo Credits:
SEAWORLD VENICE, 2026 © Nicole Marianna Wytyczak
Opening Étude, SEAWORLD VENICE 2026 © Helena Manhartsberger