Danish Pavilion at Venice Biennale Explores Sperm Banks and Porn

The Danish Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, curated by Chus Martínez, presents Maja Malou Lyse's exhibition 'Things to Come,' which originated from a sperm bank CEO donating 20 liters of semen to the artist. Lyse, known for her TV show 'Sex med Maja,' is the youngest artist to represent Denmark at the Biennale. The pavilion features a futuristic redesign with a clinical light-blue floor and yellow storage boxes for biological material, evoking a luxury boutique lab. A three-channel video installation created with the DIS collective shows heavily made-up porn actors in sterile spaces, including a CGI forest and a laboratory, exploring themes of fertility, pornography, and masculinity. The exhibition highlights how sperm become more fertile when donors watch VR porn, linking fertility crisis to masculinity collapse. Lyse's work is compared to Florentina Holzinger's Austrian Pavilion, where the body becomes a leaking material. The pavilion also references Denmark's export of reproductive industry and 'gladporn.' The afterparty featured Cicciolina on stage, underscoring the fertility theme.