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After seven months of daily performances at the 61st Venice Biennale, the radical Austrian choreographer is transforming visitor bio-matter into a permanent relic.
When performance art pushes into the absolute margins of biological taboo, few creators navigate the territory with the radical precision of Florentina Holzinger. Bringing her seven-month, high-impact takeover of the Austrian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale to a close, Holzinger has announced her final performance event: Closing Étude, set for November 21, 2026, at Venice’s historic Scuola Grande della Misericordia.
Commissioned by the Hartwig Art Foundation and curated by Nora-Swantje Almes, the grand finale centers on the iconic bell recovered from the Venetian lagoon during the project’s opening. For months, the bell has tolled hourly across the Giardini. Now, it will embark on a ceremonial procession through the city before its sound is permanently silenced. Yet,the project’s most provocative legacy is material: over the past seven months, visitor waste collected at the pavilion has been chemically distilled into a solid, lasting sculptural relic, set to be unveiled outside the pavilion on November 22 before touring internationally to Berlin, Vienna, and Brooklyn.
