Florentina Holzinger, Austrian Pavilion
61st Biennale di Venezia, Italy
9 May - 22 November 2026
This week the first visitors will be welcomed to the Austrian Pavilion at the 61th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, to see the new interdisciplinary commission by Florentina Holzinger, curated by Nora-Swantje Almes.
Known for her genre-defying work that challenges socio-political conventions, Holzinger conceptualises the Austrian Pavilion as, at once, 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 in which action and its consequences are continuously negotiated, exploring the body within a radically changing landscape where nature and technology collide.
The project features a permanent live installation at the Austrian Pavilion, alongside site-specific Études – an ongoing body of work the artist has been developing since 2020, consisting of performative actions in public space. The Études mark the opening and closing moments of SEAWORLD VENICE.
The 61th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, is on view until 22 November 2024.
This is Florentina Holzinger’s second collaboration with Phileas, following her project at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway in 2024.
Florentina Holzinger, SEAWORLD VENICE, 2026. Photo: Nicole Marianna Wytyczak