Performance as Device: The Body at the 2026 Venice Biennale
Performance art takes center stage at the 2026 Venice Biennale, serving as a crucial medium for experience creation. Various pavilions present contrasting contemporary bodily practices: at the Austrian Pavilion, Florentina Holzinger's 'Sancta' references radical performance and feminist art from the 1970s; Miet Warlop's 'IT NEVER SSST' at the Belgian Pavilion incorporates post-dramatic theater; Ei Arakawa-Nash's 'Grass Babies, Moon Babies' at the Japanese Pavilion invites audience participation with dolls; Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski's 'Liquid Tongues' at the Polish Pavilion utilizes Eastern European theatrical techniques; Dries Verhoeven's 'The Narcosis of Narrative' at the Dutch Pavilion constructs a perceptual apparatus; Gabrielle Goliath's 'Elegy' at the South African Pavilion emphasizes ritual sound; Tino Sehgal's 'The Kiss' (2002) removes physical objects. The Biennale explores diverse forms of presence.
Key facts
- Performance at the 2026 Venice Biennale is structurally institutionalized as a primary form of experience production.
- Florentina Holzinger's 'Sancta' at the Austrian Pavilion draws on 1970s radical performance and feminist body art.
- Miet Warlop's 'IT NEVER SSST' at the Belgian Pavilion uses post-dramatic theater and repetition from Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer.
- Ei Arakawa-Nash's 'Grass Babies, Moon Babies' at the Japanese Pavilion activates a Gutai-derived genealogy where spectators care for soft dolls.
- Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski's 'Liquid Tongues' at the Polish Pavilion uses a body-based grammar from Grotowski.
- Dries Verhoeven's 'The Narcosis of Narrative' at the Dutch Pavilion transforms space into a perceptual machine inspired by Foucault.
- Gabrielle Goliath's 'Elegy' at the South African Pavilion retreats the visible body into ritual vocal and post-minimalist sonic layers.
- Tino Sehgal's 'The Kiss' (2002) eliminates all objects and documentation, radicalizing Fluxus and conceptual dance.
Entities
Artists
- Florentina Holzinger
- Miet Warlop
- Ei Arakawa-Nash
- Bogna Burska
- Daniel Kotowski
- Dries Verhoeven
- Gabrielle Goliath
- Tino Sehgal
- Erika Fischer-Lichte
- Jacques Rancière
- Pina Bausch
- Antonin Artaud
- Trisha Brown
- Yvonne Rainer
- Jerzy Grotowski
- Michel Foucault
- Andrea Bruciati
Institutions
- Austrian Pavilion
- Belgian Pavilion
- Japanese Pavilion
- Polish Pavilion
- Dutch Pavilion
- South African Pavilion
- Artribune
Locations
- Venice
- Italy