The artist Florentina Holzinger is one of the most important voices in contemporary art. On the occasion of her project SEAWORLD VENICE at the Austrian Pavilion at the 61st Intern. Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia, this publication brings together various perspectives on Holzinger’s artistic practice, her visual and choreographic vocabulary, and her themes. It includes texts by Claire Bishop, Caroline Lillian Schopp, Mire Lee, Anna Leon and Nora-Swantje Almes, contributions by Beatrice Cordua, Bettina Kogler, Georg Döcker, Matthias Lilienthal, Sara Ostertag and Felix Ritter, as well as an interview with Florentina Holzinger. Working across dance, performance, opera and theatre while critically engaging with their histories, Holzinger blends legitimised ‘high’ culture with pop and countercultural currents to unsettle the lines between spectacle and subversion. In collaboration with a team and cast that bring expertise in a broad range of body-based practices and performance genres, her works experiment with body modification – in all its possible forms – as an interplay of transformation and illusion.
