Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger has been selected to represent Austria at the 2026 Venice Biennale, the 61st edition of the art event. The artist is best known for her explicit performance works, in which cast members push their bodies to the limits. Blood, needles, and nudity are common elements of her performances, which take a subversive feminist lens to the traditions of ballet, theater, and opera.
The 2026 Austrian pavilion, curated by Nora Swantje Almes, is tentatively titled “Seaworld Venice.” For this piece, Holzinger will create a water-inspired installation and performances, taking inspiration from the city’s connection to the sea. She will continue to investigate the aquatic themes from her work Ophelia’s Got Talent which debuted at the Berlin Volksbühne in 2022. In that piece—an exploration of mythical female figures—the set features a life-size helicopter, swimming pool, and a harpoon gun.
“This opportunity presents an exciting and entirely new challenge for my team and me,” said Holzinger, in a press statement. “Whether on stage, in galleries, or in public spaces, the essence of my work lies in the uncompromising use of the body as a medium…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.”
Holzinger studied choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. She has mostly worked in the theater and dance context until now, although she cites the Viennese Actionists, along with body art and bodybuilding, as inspirations for her work.
“Études,” Holzinger’s ongoing series of experimental performances in public spaces, “” has included stunts such as nude performers being suspended from piercings and others hanging upside down in a two-tonne church bell. Her first opera performance, Sancta, a remake of a scandalous 1921 opera, opened in Stuttgart, Germany earlier this year.
