Florentina Holzinger at the 61st Venice Biennale

We are proud to support artist and choreographer Florentina Holzinger and her uncompromising new work SEAWORLD VENICE , presented at the Austrian Pavilion of La Biennale di Venezia 2026 , an ambitious interdisciplinary commission curated by Nora-Swantje Almes.

Conceived as a machinic organism in which action and consequence are continuously negotiated, the work explores the body within a radically shifting landscape where nature and technology collide. The project unfolds as a permanent live installation at the Austrian Pavilion, alongside the artist’s ongoing Études , a series of site-specific performative actions in public space that mark both the opening and closing of SEAWORLD VENICE .

In response to the Biennale’s theme, In Minor Keys , SEAWORLD VENICE employs the abject to subvert polished spectacles of power and progress. By orchestrating a forceful collision between flesh and machinery, Holzinger ruptures “perfect” aesthetic surfaces to confront the raw, visceral realities of social and ecological breakdown—truths often sanitized by institutional narratives. Within these “minor keys,” the pavilion becomes a site of radical feminist resistance, where the body is reclaimed to dismantle hierarchies and assert agency in a collapsing world.

Our co-founder, Anastasia Bukhman, said: “Florentina's practice is fearless and uncompromising, pushing at the edges of what performance can be and challenging audiences to see and feel things they perhaps didn't expect to. At the Bukhman Foundation, we believe in artists who challenge, provoke, and see their art as something more. Ensuring that the most daring and visionary practices have the space and resources they need is the most vital investment a supporter of the arts can make.”

On view at the Austrian Pavilion from 9 May to 22 November 2026.

About Florentina Holzinger

Holzinger’s works have been awarded the Nestroy ( TANZ , 2020) and DER FAUST awards ( Ophelia’s Got Talent , 2023) and have been selected by the Theatertreffen Berlin four times in a row ( TANZ, Ophelia’s Got Talent, SANCTA, A Year without Summer ). In addition to her stage productions, Holzinger creates Études , an ongoing series of site-specific, one-off performances in public space that have been presented in collaboration with the Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; Bergen Kunsthall; Berlin Atonal Festival; and the Vienna Festival, among others. Since 2021, she has been an associate artist at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin. Since February 2026 she has been represented by Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery.

About Nora-Swantje Almes

Nora-Swantje Almes is a curator with a focus on performance in the visual arts context and on performative exhibition formats. She has been curator of the Live Programme and Outreach at Gropius Bau, Berlin, since 2024. Prior to this, she headed the Live Programme at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, for three years, where she developed the commissioned work Harbour Étude with Florentina Holzinger and her team in summer 2024. In her curatorial career, she has held positions at Glasgow International, Participant Inc., New York; Artangel, London; and the Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin.

Images

SEAWORLD VENICE, 2026 ©️ Nicole Marianna Wytyczak