At the Venice Biennale 2026, Austrian performance artist Florentina Holzinger has drawn global attention with a daring live artwork that blends spectacle, activism, and environmental warning. Presented at the Austrian Pavilion, her immersive installation Seaworld Venice imagines a future where rising seas have transformed the historic city into a partially submerged world.
The performance begins with a striking ritual: a nude female performer hangs upside down inside a massive bronze bell, using her swinging body as the clapper to ring out a symbolic climate alarm.
A bell that sounds a warning
Suspended above the pavilion entrance, the reclaimed bell bears the inscription “TEMPORA O MORES.” Rather than relying on mechanics, the performer generates sound through physical motion, swinging back and forth to create resonant tones that echo through the exhibition grounds.
The act represents urgency, a warning about accelerating sea-level rise, fragile ecosystems, and humanity’s role in environmental degradation. Repeated hourly in short sequences, the performance emphasises endurance and persistence, mirroring the ongoing struggle against climate change.
Imagining a flooded Venice
Holzinger’s installation transforms the pavilion into a speculative underwater environment inspired by Venice itself, a city already facing regular flooding and ecological stress.
Seaworld Venice merges contrasting spaces:
-a dystopian theme park
-a functioning sewage-treatment metaphor
-and a ritualistic sanctuary
Together, these elements explore water as both a life-sustaining force and a destructive power capable of reshaping civilisations.
Performance art meets environmental critique
Beyond the bell performance, the installation unfolds as a living ecosystem powered by performers and audience interaction:
-A jet-ski circling the space critiques mass tourism and its environmental footprint.
-Performers positioned on a monumental weathervane symbolize collective adaptation to shifting climates.
-Another performer survives inside a tank sustained by audience-contributed bodily fluids, forming a closed-loop system that comments on waste, inequality, and how vulnerable communities often absorb the consequences of global consumption.
Through these layered actions, Holzinger examines how technological progress, tourism economies, and environmental neglect intersect.
Viral footage from the Giardini
Videos filmed at the Giardini della Biennale show the dramatic outdoor setting under grey skies and rain. Shot from a low angle, the footage highlights the scale contrast between the human body and the monumental bell.
The athletic performer’s focused expression and controlled movement underline the physical intensity required to activate the artwork. Rather than sensationalism, the performance communicates vulnerability, effort, and resilience.
Holzinger’s signature style
Born in Vienna in 1986, Holzinger is known for pushing bodily limits through dance, theatre, and endurance-based performance. Her work frequently combines nudity, athleticism, feminism, and social critique to challenge cultural expectations surrounding power, gender, and control.
For this Biennale project, she collaborated with curator Nora-Swantje Almes alongside a large team of performers, engineers, and technicians. Early previews began in May 2026, with the installation scheduled to run through November.
