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. On view from May 9 – November 22, 2026, the project will feature a permanent live installation and performances at the Austrian Pavilion, alongside site-specific Études across Venice and its lagoon.
Hartwig Art Foundation is a Lead Partner of SEAWORLD VENICE and Commissioner of the Closing Étude scheduled to take place at the end of the Biennale.
Closing Étude, 21 November 2026
After seven months of daily performances, Florentina Holzinger brings SEAWORLD VENICE to its culmination with Closing Étude, commissioned by Hartwig Art Foundation at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a 14th-century confraternity in Venice.
Holzinger’s emblematic bell, retrieved from the lagoon during the Opening Étude, has become a central element of SEAWORLD VENICE, resonating both within the Austrian Pavilion and beyond the walls of the Giardini della Biennale. Suspended between the sacred and the secular, the bell takes centre stage once more. As its sound falls silent and the water stops circulating, the Closing Étude brings SEAWORLD VENICE into its final state.
Reservations open on 21 October here. Tickets are free of charge but limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Florentina Holzinger, SEAWORLD VENICE (2026). © Celestia Studio, courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac gallery