The 3 Bitcoin Opera Wins Inaugural Biennale College – Blend Prize
On September 6, 2026, the inaugural Biennale College – Blend honored the 3 Bitcoin Opera, created by Claudix Vanesix and Cristina Soto Arias (Peru/France), with a prize of €20,000 at Spazio Incontri Immersive in Venice. The ceremony featured attendees Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Alberto Barbera. This opera offers a fresh take on Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, centering on a romantic narrative involving Xenon9, a transfeminine cyborg, and Felicidad, a transmasculine non-human. The Biennale College – Blend initiative supports six international projects, including those by Simone Marino, Mei Liu, Carla Andolina, Hongbo Cai, and Daria Zhuravel. Applications for the second edition will be accepted until October 19, 2026, with results revealed in January 2027.
Key facts
- The 3 Bitcoin Opera by Claudix Vanesix and Cristina Soto Arias won the inaugural Biennale College – Blend prize.
- The award of €20,000 was given on September 6, 2026, at the Venice Immersive Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio).
- The project reinterprets Brecht's The Threepenny Opera in a contemporary context of AI, surveillance capitalism, and ecological collapse.
- The opera features a love story between Xenon9, a transfeminine cyborg, and Felicidad, a transmasculine non-human being.
- Biennale College – Blend supports six international projects with 12 participants (artist and producer).
- Other five teams include projects from Italy, China, Japan, and Ukraine.
- The call for the second edition is open until October 19, 2026.
- Selected projects for the second edition will be announced in January 2027 and will attend workshops in Venice (Feb 22-28, 2027) and online (Apr 12-15, 2027).
Entities
Artists
- Claudix Vanesix
- Cristina Soto Arias
- Simone Marino
- Giacomo Rinaldini
- Mei Liu
- Chiaki Soma
- Jia Y Ding
- Carla Andolina
- Enea Lorenzoni
- Hongbo Cai
- Yinx Zhou
- Daria Zhuravel
- Anastasiia Zakhiiko
Institutions
- La Biennale di Venezia
- Biennale Cinema
- Venice Immersive Island
- Italian Ministry of Culture – General Directorate for Cinema and Audiovisual
Locations
- Venice
- Italy
- Lazzaretto Vecchio
- San Servolo
- Peru
- France
- China
- Japan
- Ukraine